We have discovered more revisionist history in the SAINTS, [LDS Narrative Essay books]. Three revelations (D&C 28, 30 & 32) were given to Joseph Smith to send the first 4 missionaries on a singular mission to….the LAMANITES! Every revealed mission call said so. The Lord himself even proclaimed He would go with them as their advocate.
“SAINTS” completely censors the word “Lamanites” from these revelations, claiming instead that the missionaries were simply “on their way to the West” (p103) or Oliver’s “mission to the West” (p108) where “the Lord had called them to preach to the American Indians...” (p105), which term is absent from any of the revelations while redacting the term “Lamanites” which was used in every one of the revelations.
Why?
Mesomania, of course. If the American Indians were Lamanites, that makes it more difficult to accept the Meso theories. So, to keep it geography neutral, they altered the Lord’s very words to accommodate M2C. (Mesoamerican 2-Cumorah Theory)
I first believe Personal Revelation. Then I trust Canonized Scripture, Then I trust the words of the Prophets. “Saints” is a feel good book, I enjoy it but don’t believe everything in it. Historians make mistakes through including a narrative history.
A Mission to the Lamanites/Cumorah
“A Mission to the Lamanites is reported differently in Saints and other documents compared to Parley P. Pratt’s autobiography. Parley’s 1831 description of Oliver Cowdery preaching to the Delaware Indians (in Indian Territory west of Missouri) states, “This Book, which contained these things, was hid in the earth by Moroni, in a hill called by him Cumorah, which hill is now in the State of New York, near the village of Palmyra, in Ontario county. ” See History of the Church, Vol 1, p184, The Deseret Book Company 1973.
SAINTS, volume 1 leaves out the word “Cumorah” and instead uses the narrative calling Cumorah, a hill, or the hill. In the index under the title, “hill” it lists the following pages where “hill” in used, not Cumorah. See index under, hill (Cumorah) page 22, 24, 25, 29, 34
Missionaries didn’t arrive in Guatemala until 1947! In History of the Church, Page 183 (1950 Copyright, same as above), it states, “* The Mission to the Lamanites.—As the “mission to the Lamanites” is a very prominent event in early Church history, it is proper that the labors of the brethren engaged in it should be spoken of more fully than appears anywhere in the Prophet’s narrative, and at this point, following the letter of Oliver Cowdery, seems as appropriate a place as will be found to speak of it.” The Saints, Vol 1 doesn’t think the mission to the Lamanites is very prominent.
This 2016 Doctrine and Covenants study manual refers to the Lamanite Mission and the Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, but it doesn’t mention that Parley told the Delaware Indians about Moroni and the metal plates deposited in the hill Cumorah in western New York near Palmyra. The Preface to Revelations in Context states: “The stories in this collection, which treat almost all of the sections in the Doctrine and Covenants, were written by historians in the Church History Department. In telling these stories, the authors brought to bear both their faith in the restored gospel and their training and expertise in American and Mormon history. Particularly important to this series was the Joseph Smith Papers Project, which has provided a foundation of meticulous scholarship upon which all historical interpretation of Joseph Smith’s life and work should build. Citations to the Joseph Smith Papers in Revelations in Context typically direct the reader to the documents and materials generously made available on josephsmithpapers.org.”
“The footnote is flawed. It should point to Oliver’s preaching to the Delaware Indians and Moroni and the Hill Cumorah. I guess flawed narrative has to point to a flawed footnote. Why no mention of Section 28? I don’t know what is on page 36 of Parley P. Pratt. My missionary Triple Combination (Copyright 1970) that I used in the Ontario Quebec Mission from Nov 1971 to Nov 1973 uses the words “mission to the Lamanites” in the section headings for Sections 28 (mentions Lamanites 3 times in the scriptural text) and [section] 30 (Lamanites mentioned 1 time in the scriptural text). The section heading to Section 32 mentions “Lamanites” once and “Indian tribes in the west” once. The scriptural text uses the words “into the wilderness among the Lamanites.” My 1980 Copyright Triple Combination scriptures in Section 28 in the heading doesn’t say anything about Oliver’s mission to the Lamanites and has several fewer sentences than the 1970 version. The subheading for verses 1-7 does state, “Oliver Cowdery is to preach to the Lamanites.” The scriptural text does mention Lamanites 3 times like the 1970 version. Section 30 has different verbiage and no reference to Oliver Cowdery’s mission to the Lamanites in the heading. The subheading for versus 5-8 does state, “Peter Whitmer, Jun., is to accompany Oliver Cowdery on a mission to the Lamanites.” The scriptural text does mention Lamanites 1 time like the 1970 version. Section 32 has different verbiage in the heading and deletes the word “yearning” from “yearning desires.” The last sentence from the 1970 version has been excluded in the 1980 version, “The missionaries admonished to confine themselves to the expounding of the written word, as they shall be given understanding thereof.” The subheading for verses 1-3 does state, “preach to the Lamanites.” The scriptural text matches the 1970 version and uses the words “into the wilderness among the Lamanites.” As you can see, the 1980 version is drifting away from the “mission to the Lamanites” verbiage. I didn’t compare with the online version.” Bruce Lloyd Pleasant Grove, UT
In my opinion it is sad that this book review below, describes what actually happens when the SAINTS editors start adding or taking away from Church History. It clouds truth and I feel many in the correlation department want to keep the 2 Cumorah theory as their pet theory. I don’t think they are bad people, but they are more interested in their theory than allowing others to understand geography differently. Overall the SAINTS book is a wonderful addition to our libraries. We understand the Brethren have approved this book and we support them in all they do. We believe that the Brethren trust those editors who are in charge. We just want to make you aware to read and study on your own all good books and scripture and pray about it. The Lord will always guide you to absolute truth.
SAINTS Book Review
“One of the tactics that critics have used recently to try to destroy faith is to describe a lesser known event in church history in a way that is intended to shock the reader. By sensationalizing and removing it from its context, and often even misrepresenting what actually happened, the victim is left feeling betrayed by the Church, thinking they have been lied to or that the Church has been hiding or whitewashing its history.” Book Review: Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, Volume 1: The Standard of Truth 1815-1846 September 17, 2018 by Trevor Holyoak
See Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum Pages 349, 383, & 397
Hugh Nibley stated: “In view of the nature of their civilization one should not be puzzled if the Nephites had left us no ruins at all. People underestimate the capacity of things to disappear, and do not realize that the ancients almost never built of stone. Many a great civilization which has left a notable mark in history and literature has left behind not a single recognizable trace of itself. We must stop looking for the wrong things.” (An Approach to the Book of Mormon, pg. 431)
Hugh Nibley also observed: “A closer approximation to the Book of Mormon picture of Nephite culture is seen in the [mound builder] earth and palisade structures of the Hopewell and Adena culture areas than in the later stately piles of stone in Mesoamerica…” (The Prophetic Book of Mormon’, pp.272-273)
“The Nephites vastly preferred wood to any other building material, and only worked in cement when they were forced to by shortage of timber. Indeed, they refused to settle otherwise good lands in the north if timber for building was lacking (Helaman 3:5). Where they reluctantly settled in unforested areas they continued to “dwell in tents, and in houses of cement,” while they patiently waited for the trees to grow (Helaman 3:9). Since cement must be made of limestone [see. p. 63], there was no lack of stone for building in the north. Why then did they not simply build of stone and forget about the cement and wood? Because, surprising as it may seem, ancient people almost never built of stone. Even when the magnificent “king Noah built many elegant and spacious buildings,” their splendor was that of carved wood and precious metal, like the palace of any great lord of Europe or Asia, with no mention of stone (Mosiah 11:8-9). The Book of Mormon boom cities went up rapidly (Mosiah 23:5; 27:6), while the builders were living in tents. And these were not stone cities: Nephite society was even more dependent on forests than is our own” – Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, 2nd Edition, Chapter 29, Building Materials, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co. [1964].
Helaman 3:7 And there being but little timber upon the face of the land, nevertheless the people who went forth became exceeding expert in the working of cement; therefore they did build houses of cement, in the which they did dwell. 8 And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east. 9 And the people who were in the land northward did dwell in tents and in houses of cement, and they did suffer whatsoever tree should spring up upon the face of the land that it should grow up, that in time they might have timber to build their houses, yea, their cities, and their temples and their synagogues and their sanctuaries, and all manner of their buildings. 10 And it came to pass as timber was exceedingly scarce in the land northward, they did send forth much by the way of shipping. 11 And thus they did enable the people in the land northward that they might build many cities, both of wood and of cement. 12 And it came to pass that there were many of the people of Ammon who were Lamanites by birth, did also go forth into this land.
Burnt Lime Plaster (“cement”)
There is a temple mound situated above the Ohio River near Cincinnati. “Fragments of burnt limestone may still be seen on the top. The mound is a rectangle two hundred and twenty-five feet long by one hundred and twenty feet broad, and seven feet high.” In contrast to the hewn stone buildings and altars of Mexico, the Ohio mound has the right dimensions to have accommodated a timber and burnt lime plaster (“cement”) building of the size and proportions of Solomon’s Temple.” J. P. Maclean, The Mound Builders – Archaeology of Butler County, Ohio, 1904, pp. 222-223.
(Left) Huts located at Fort Ancient, Lebanon, OH, were made of rectangular or circular sapling frames covered in mats, bark and animal hides. These huts may have been similar to the type of homes built by the Nephites. (Photos by Rod Meldrum and found on Page 349 of Annotated Book of Mormon)
The outer wall of this timber-built circular hut, shown above, depicts how they were covered with clay daub, a type of “cement” filler (see p. 63 Annotated Book of Mormon). (Right photo by Bill) Typical Hopewell Indian hut.
(Left) Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. In: Wilbur Sturtevant Nye, Plains Indian raiders: the final phases of warfare from the Arkansas to the Red River, with original photographs by William S. Soule. University of Oklahoma Press, 1st edition, 1968, ISBN 0806111755, p. 400. On the left: Homes built by Plains Indians with timber frames and thatch roofs.
(Above) Angel Mounds, located in southwest Indiana had defensive walls made of timber plastered with a type of cement. (Photos by Rod Meldrum and also on page 383 of Annotated Book of Mormon)
(Above) Depiction of an Ancient Indian Village with Walled Fortifications Cahokia Mounds, Illinois
NEPHITE CITIES BUILT WITH WOOD BURNED
▪ “And many great and notable cities were sunk and many were burned” (3 Nephi 8:14). ▪ “And behold, that great city Jacobugath which was inhabited by the people of King Jacob, have I caused to be burned with fire” (3 Nephi 9:9). ▪ “And behold the city of Laman and the city of Josh and the city of Gad and the city of Kishkumen, have I caused to be burned with fire” (3 Nephi 9:10). ▪ “And it came to pass that whatsoever lands we had passed by and the inhabitants there were not gathered in were destroyed by the Lamanites, and their towns and villages and cities were burned with fire” (Mormon 5:5). ▪ “And he [Shiz] did overthrow many cities, and he did slay both women and children, and he did burn the cities” (Ether 14:17; Jaredite timber cities).
“And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood” – 2 Nephi 5:15.
“And the people who were in the land northward did dwell in tents, and in houses of cement, and they did suffer whatsoever tree should spring up upon the land that it should grow up, that in time they might have timber to build their houses, yea, their cities, and their temples, and their synagogues, and their sanctuaries, and all manner of their buildings” – Helaman 3:9.
Since the Nephites and Jaredites built their cities primarily out of wood, with no mention in the text of any buildings made of stone, burning would be the most effective way to destroy them.
(Above) “American Indian Life in the Late Prehistoric Period” By Susan A. Walton Courtesy of Hopewell Cultural Center, Chillicothe, Ohio
(Above) Chief of the Taensa Indians Receiving La Salle. March 20, 1682 By George Catlin (July 26, 1796 December 23, 1872) Wooden Homes of the Taensa Indians.
American Cement
“This name has been lately given to a geological compound, so arranged that it crystallizes into perfect stone. It is now well settled, that we can prepare the constituent parts of various rocks so as to render them subject to the laws of affinity, which soon unites them into their former solid state. It is now generally believed that all rocks were once in a liquid, or semi-liquid state, so as to admit of motion among their particles. As the laws of nature are immutable, it is obvious that if the elements of various rocks are brought into the same state, in which chance often throws them on the surface of the globe, their crystallization is certain. And sometimes we find fragments of different rocks and pebbles united by an intervening formation which has crystallized around them. Hence the production of artificial stone is as much the work of nature as the fruit of an apple-tree. When their natural products are being developed, we may vary the soil which gives nourishment to the latter, and the elements which enter into the composition of the former.—Buffalo Paper.” American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, Volume 3 Page 76 edited by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Elizabeth Manning page 76
Jonathan Neville about Cement
I’m getting questions about cement, so I’ll repeat what I’ve said about one of my favorite “Kno-Whys” of all time.
The only known Nephite cement was the cement that Moroni used when he built the stone box for the plates, as described by Joseph and Oliver.
Unless by now the Mesomaniacs have talked themselves into disbelieving what Joseph and Oliver said about the box, even they have to admit that Moroni used Nephite cement in New York. There is no other instance of Nephite cement that we can identify with 100% confidence.
“The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement.” Joseph Smith-History 1:52.
Oliver Cowdery (who, according to Book of Mormon Central, was an ignorant speculator so you won’t find this in any of their no-wise) described the situation on the Hill Cumorah this way:
“First, a hole of sufficient depth, (how deep I know not) was dug. At the bottom of this was laid a stone of suitable size, the upper surface being smooth. At each edge was placed a large quantity of cement, and into this cement, at the four edges of this stone, were placed, erect, four others, their bottom edges resting in the cement at the outer edges of the first stone. The four last named, when placed erect, formed a box, the corners, or where the edges of the four came in contact, were also cemented so firmly that the moisture from without was prevented from entering. It is to be observed, also, that the inner surface of the four erect, or side stones was smoothe. This box was sufficiently large to admit a breast-plate, such as was used by the ancients to defend the chest, &c. from the arrows and weapons of their enemy. From the bottom of the box, or from the breast-plate, arose three small pillars composed of the same description of cement used on the edges; and upon these three pillars was placed the record of the children of Joseph, and of a people who left the tower far, far before the days of Joseph, or a sketch of each…” http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/95
This was in New York, not Mesoamerica.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Moroni knew how to work with cement in New York; he and his father Mormon wrote the Book of Mormon while they lived in what is now New York. Moroni told Joseph that the record was “written and deposited not far from” his home.
The fun part about this no-wise is how the Book of Mormon never mentions the people building with stone (except one wall in Alma 48:8). They built with wood and with wood and cement.
Helaman 3:11 “And thus they did enable the people in the land northward that they might build many cities, both of wood and of cement.”
That’s right. Wood. Cement.
Not stone.
And yet, all the evidence cited by the no-wise involves ancient Central Americans building with stone and cement.
This might seem like nitpicking, but it’s an essential difference. If we’re looking for the Book of Mormon culture described by the text, we’re not looking for a culture that built with massive stones, engraved their history on stella, etc.
Mosiah Translating by Minerva Teichert
In fact, in a thousand years of history, exactly one engraved stone is even mentioned (Omni 1:20), and that was because its uniqueness made it so remarkable. And it wasn’t even a Nephite or Lamanite who engraved it.
We’re looking for a culture that built with earth and wood, primarily. They only used cement when they needed to let timber grow, because they preferred to build with timber. Only in one instance, Helaman 3, (again, so unusual it deserved special mention) with wood and cement.
IOW, the “cement” requirement describes ancient North American culture and excludes ancient Central American culture.
Of course the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs advocates cite “cement” as a “correspondence” between the Book of Mormon and Mesoamerica. I’d like to know of any human society that did not use a material that could be called “cement.” It’s another illusory correspondence, designed to support the rejection of what Joseph and Oliver taught about Cumorah in New York.
You can see archaeological reconstructions of ancient wood and cement structures at museums in Ohio.
And they are houses, just as the Book of Mormon describes.
Naturally, we don’t expect much, if any, Nephite cement to exist today. Even modern cement doesn’t last a long time where there is freezing and thawing.
Notice that Moroni knew this when he buried his stone box into the hill Cumorah and kept the moisture from entering.
We all wish Joseph or Oliver had kept a sample of Moroni’s cement. But at least they left us this detailed account of it.
Which, in any rational world, would be enough evidence to tell us where the Book of Mormon actually took place.
“I pulverized the limestone to powder and heated it to incandescence, converting some of the limestone (calcium carbonate) to calcium oxide. Ancient North Americans capable of smelting copper, could have produced temperatures hot enough to make moisture resistant lime plaster. Burnt lime “plaister” was known to the Israelites of old. (Leviticus 14:42, Isaiah 33:12) Hebrew scripture, in fact, may have inspired Nephite “cement”.
I then made a “wattle and daub” type structure of reeds cemented with clay.
Model “wattle and daub” structure with moisture resistant coating
I mixed the cooked powdered limestone with water (it warmed exothermically as I mixed in the water). I applied the moist paste to the exterior of the reed and clay model. When dry, the cooked lime plaster formed a moisture resistant coating on the exterior of the model shelter.
“Wattle and daub” type structures are known to have been made by many ancient peoples around the world, particularly in areas where timber was scarce…
A 19th Century definition of “cement” is “any substance applied in a soft or glutinous state to the surfaces of solid bodies to make them cohere firmly”. (Oxford English Dictionary)
The mound builders of North America are known to have made “wattle and daub” houses using materials that qualify for the definition of “cement” in use in Joseph Smith’s day. The Bible makes mention of “daubed” structures. (Ezekiel 13:15).” W. Vincent Coon
The outside of the temple may have been finished with a mortar cement made out of limestone which was prevalent in the Promised Land. We also find mention of cement houses in the Book of Mormon. Helaman 3:7. “Lime mortar is a type of mortar composed of lime and an aggregate such as sand, mixed with water. It is one of the oldest known types of mortar, dating back to the 4th century BC and widely used in Ancient Rome and Greece. After processing, products derived from limestone have the unique ability to return fairly quickly to their original chemical form.” Lucas, A. 2003 Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries.
*Clay: In ancient Hebrew, the word “chomer” (pronounced as kho’mer) may be translated into “cement” but is synonymous with clay and is more commonly used to represent a type of filler or daub than it is to represent cement. (See p. 349 for examples.) (*https://biblehub.com/hebrew/2563.htm)
I. חֹ֫מֶר noun masculine cement, mortar, clay; — ׳חabsolute Genesis 11:3 13t.; construct Isaiah 10:6 2t.; — 1 mortar, cement for holding building-stones (brick) together Genesis 11:3 (J), Exodus 1:14 (P; both “” לְבֵנִים); Nahum 3:14 (“” טיט). 2 clay: a. as material of vessels Jeremiah 18:4,6, היצר ׳ח Isaiah 29:16, in simile of God’s fashioning man Isaiah 45:9; Isaiah 64:7; Job 10:9; as material of human bodies ׳בָּתֵּי ח Job 4:19; compare Job 33:6; as material of bulwarks (disparagingly) Job 13:12; חותם ׳ח = seal-clay i.e. clay upon which seal is pressed. b. = mire חוצות ׳ח Isaiah 10:6; ׳הֹרָנִי לַח Job 30:19 he hath cast me into the mire, i.e. deeply humiliated me (עָפָר and אֵפֶר in “” clause); as simile of commonness, abundance Job 27:16 (“” עָפָר).
The temple would be built on the highest point of the Nephite settlement. (Painting represents Lookout Mountain above Moccasin Bend on the Tennessee River). It would be facing directly east symbolic of The Savior’s coming. It was to be built like Solomon’s. The altars of the temple were made of stacked stone, not hewn stone. “The word in Exodus 20:25 which is translated as ‘tool’ is the Hebrew חרב which most literally means ‘sword’. There explains that a sword is designed to shorten life, while an altar is designed to lengthen life by being used to achieve atonement. It makes sense, therefore, that one should not be used in the formation of the other.” Rashi, Medieval French Rabbi.
In reference to Solomon’s Temple, the LDS Bible Dictionary says; “The temple walls were composed of hewn stone made ready at the quarry. The roof was of cedar and the walls were paneled with it. The cedar was carved with figures (cherubim, palm trees, and flowers) and was overlaid with gold fitted to the carving. All the materials for the house were prepared before they were brought to the site… There were two temple courts. The inner court was surrounded by a wall consisting of three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams.” 1 Kgs. 6:36. “And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.” 1 Kings 5:18. “Pillars of Solomon’s temple (1 Kgs. 7:21; 2 Chr. 3:17); the names denote “He will establish” [Jachin] and “In Him is strength” [Boaz]. The pillars, which stood on the south and north sides of the porch, were probably ornamental and not intended to support any part of the weight of the building.” LDS Bible Dictionary.
More about Ancient Cement
The natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee: up to the first settlements therein by the white people, in the year 1768 BY JOHN HAYWOOD, OF THE COUNTY OF DAVIDSON, THE STATE OF TENNESSEE. NASHVILLE : PRINTED BY GEORGE WILCOX, 1823. Page 356-7
In the year 1794, was discovered, in North Carolina, a subterranean wall, about twelve miles above Salisbury, in Rowan county. It was parallel to a small branch, which ran into a creek about 30 yards below the wall. It is ten or twelve yards distant from the stream, and runs into a hill on the side of a branch, and upon the upper part of it. On this side of the rivulet and extending to it, was a cleared field. The rain water running from the hill to the branch, carried away in a gully, the soil above the wall, and exposed it to view. The inner side was then uncovered, as well as the outer, by digging. It is somewhat less than two feet thick. It is said, that as the hill rises, the wall rises, still keeping its upper part at the same distance below the surface as it was in the bottom. The wall is perfectly straight, except a small circular offset of about six feet, after which it is continued in its former direction. Some persons have dug ten or twelve feet by the side of the wall, without finding its bottom, or any alteration in its form. The stones of which it is composed, are all of a dark blue colour, containing iron, of the size and shape of small bricks, and exactly similar to others on the opposite hill, about the distance of 250 or 300 yards, where an abundance of the same sort of stones was to be seen in 1794. These stones, seven or eight inches long, are placed across the wall, and in the middle are stones of all sorts and shapes. There is between the stones a mortar, or cement, the outer side of which is of a ferruginous or dark colour ; the inside, of the thickness of one sixth or eighth of an inch, was a pure white substance, of the precise colour of lime, made of burnt limestone, or oyster shells, and rendered adhesive by the addition of water ; in which state being laid away, it had afterwards become dry and hard. When the outer stones do not exactly fit, there seems to be a small fragment of stone wedged in so as to fill the space. The mortar in some places is said to be an inch thick, where the stones do not exactly fit to one another. The wall seems to have been plastered on both sides with the same kind of mortar. He who has not seen it may think it a work of nature ; but not him who has — one of whom is the writer. I look at it, and the hill above, and adjoining to it, will not fail to force the idea, of soil heaped in a diluted state, against, upon, and over the wall, without throwing it down. I would rather say, of settling against and reposing upon it, till it acquired a more solid consistence by exposure to the sun and wind. A lesser wall has since been discovered at the distance of five or six miles from this. It has been traced fifty or sixty feet. Jt is only seven inches thick, and all the stones reach quite across the wall. These walls are probably of the same age.
In 1783, in the county of Craven, in North Carolina, at the plantation of General William Bryant, was a stream on which he had a mill. A point of land projected into the stream, against which the dam was made to abut. Into the bluff lie cut twenty feet or more, for a site for the millhouse. At the “bottom of this cavity, in red clay, the diggers filled a hard glass bottle, of uncommon thickness, with a short neck, and the lower part with bulges projecting on the sides, as if protruded by the pressure of the bottle to the ground when in a plastic state. Near the spot where the bottle was found, when a number of fire coals and some chumps. The bottle was fifteen or twenty feet at least below the surface of the bluff, and more than thirty feet from the margin of the stream.
Along the Ohio, where the river in many places swells over its banks, hearths and fire-pllaces are seen, two, four and six feet below the surface It is supposed by some to be a long time since the dirt was deposited over them. Around them are immense quantities of muscle shells, bones of animals, &c. Upon the surface above these chimneys and fireplaces, there grew, at the first settlement of the country by the whites, as large trees as any in the forest. The conclusion made by some, is, that a large space, probably l,000 years, has elapsed since these hearths were deserted. Muscle shells used in all the pottery of the ancient inhabitants, and found at all their dwellings, shows a much greater abundance of them produced in our waters in those days, than at the present; a much more agreeable taste in the muscle than at the present day, and of course a change in the waters themselves, to much more freshness now than then. Source: https://archive.org/stream/naturalaborigina00hayw#page/n10/mode/2up
More of Angel Mound’s recreated palisades of cement in Evansville, Indiana.
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Native American Life: Reconstructed Sweat Lodge. Angel Mounds State Historic Site, Evansville, Vanderburgh County, IndianaA section of reconstructed palisade at Angel Mounds
Captain Philip Beale British Navy Captain and Adventurer
Maritime adventurer Philip Beale has led a life of exploration, searching for answers to some of the great mysteries of ancient civilizations. His adventures began when he was chosen for Operation Drake, sailing the brigantine Eye of the Wind from Fiji to Papua New Guinea. Later, Philip joined the Royal Navy as an officer, and after leaving the Navy, he then led a successful career in finances. Years later, in Indonesia, Philip commissioned construction of a replica vessel depicted at the Borobudur stupa. He then navigated the Borobudur Ship Expedition across the Indian Ocean sailing far as Ghana in the West coast of Africa. The Borobudur Ship is now on display in its own dedicated at Museum at the Borobudur Temple in Indonesia. His next big project was the Phoenician Ship Expeditions.
What Does Philip Beale Think?
As you see below, I asked Philip a question about the best route of a 600 BC ship to America. Either from Gibraltar northwest to the St Lawrence Seaway or from Gibraltar southwest to the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi River. His answer is a big reason why I believe the Mulekites landed in Zarahemla by way of the Mississippi River, and not through the St Lawrence. See Omni 1:16 which says, “And they [Mulekites] journeyed in the wilderness and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters, into the land where Mosiah discovered them; and they had dwelt there from that time forth.”
If the Mulekites had been “there from that time forth”, That is where they landed. If they used the St Lawrence Seaway they could not have landed directly at Montrose, IA without stopping and by foot traveling many miles to find another river to then get to Montrose. If they used the Mississippi River, they would have traveled by ship all the way to the Des Moines Rapids without stopping.
This is just my opinion, as my good friend Wayne May feels they came through the St Lawrence. Neither of us know for sure, but I feel mine makes more sense to me.
Below is my email from Rian Nelson to Philip Beale
“So even though the northern route to the St Lawrence seems shorter travel that way would be because of the winds? How many days would it take in your ship for you to travel from Tunisia to the Mouth of the St Lawrence River? How many days from the Mouth of the St Lawrence to Nauvoo, Illinois? Also understanding the Great Lakes could have been higher in 600 BC how hard would it be to cross the Great Lakes going west to Lake Michigan and then to the Mississippi River and down to Nauvoo?
How many days would it take in your ship for you to travel from Tunisia to the Mouth of the Mississippi River? How many days also from the Mouth of the Mississippi to Nauvoo, Illinois? How many days was your actual 2020 expedition from Tunisia to Florida?
There is of course the Des Moines Rapids by Keokuk, Iowa on the Mississippi. If Mulek traveled up the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico to those rapids, would it have been possible that the rapids could have been higher in 600 BC to have crossed the rapids a few more miles to land near Nauvoo?”
Thanks so much for your help, Rian Nelson
Email from Philip Beale to Rian Nelson Jan 4, 2022
“Hi Rian,
Thanks for your email the other day and sorry for my delayed response.
I think in general the so-called Northern route is a non-starter for an historical/maritime point of view because as you will see from the attached chart (below), the currents and winds (which have been the same for thousands of years) go against the norther route. Unless the Phoenicians invented the internal combustion engine or sailed to meet the Vikings first in Norway, it just does not make sense.
This is the chart Captain Beale sent me in his email.
However, the southern route is just like a conveyer belt all the way to the Caribbean from the Med. For the rivers we would have to look at the distances involved but I think at best you would be looking at 10 miles per day through rowing.
Happy to do a bit more work on this but I thought I would send this to get started.”
Regards Philip
Study The Maps
Rian says, “I believe if you study the maps below, they will be an important key to your understanding the voyage of the Mulekites. I have used Captain Beale as my guide to understand sailing of a 600 BC Phoenician ship. He has traveled 30,000 miles and is very educated in this travel.”
Captain Beale said to me, “traveling up the Mississippi River could easily have been done with a technique called “tacking.”
Beating to windward on a series of port and starboard tacks, tacking between each at points 1, 2, and 3. Wikipedia
“Tacking or coming about is a sailing maneuver by which a sailing craft (sailing vessel, ice boat, or land yacht), whose next destination is into the wind, turns its bow toward and through the wind so that the direction from which the wind blows changes from one side of the boat to the other, allowing progress in the desired direction. Sailing vessels are unable to sail higher than a certain angle towards the wind, so “beating to windward” in a zig-zag fashion with a series of tacking maneuvers, allows a vessel to sail towards a destination that is closer to the wind that the vessel can sail directly.
A sailing craft, whose course is downwind, jibes (or “wears” if square-rigged) by having the apparent wind cross the stern from one tack to the other. High-performance sailing craft may tack, rather than jibe, downwind, when the apparent wind is well forward.” Wikipedia
Here is my projected voyage of the Mulekites and of Lehi.
See my maps about the many voyages to the Promised land. I sincerely believe the Jaredites came from Babel through to Persian Gulf on the first set of barges and ended up in China or Japan with the second set of barges traveling 344 days as Ether says, to the Northwest coast of America near Seattle. See my blog here: https://bookofmormonevidence.org/jaredites-2-sets-of-barges-pacific-landing/
If you want more details on any voyage. Don’t just dismiss these theories, study and ask questions. Firm Foundation Expo Facebook post Feb 10, 2024 Rian Nelson riannelson@aol.com or 801-931-9031
This is a picture from Philip Beal of his voyage from Tunisia to Ft Lauderdale Florida. ending in April 2020.
See Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum Pages 349, 383, 397
Hugh Nibley stated: “In view of the nature of their civilization one should not be puzzled if the Nephites had left us no ruins at all. People underestimate the capacity of things to disappear, and do not realize that the ancients almost never built of stone. Many a great civilization which has left a notable mark in history and literature has left behind not a single recognizable trace of itself. We must stop looking for the wrong things.” (An Approach to the Book of Mormon, pg. 431)
Hugh Nibley also observed: “A closer approximation to the Book of Mormon picture of Nephite culture is seen in the [mound builder] earth and palisade structures of the Hopewell and Adena culture areas than in the later stately piles of stone in Mesoamerica…” (The Prophetic Book of Mormon’, pp.272-273)
By Val Chadwick Bagley
“The Nephites vastly preferred wood to any other building material, and only worked in cement when they were forced to by shortage of timber. Indeed, they refused to settle otherwise good lands in the north if timber for building was lacking (Helaman 3:5). Where they reluctantly settled in unforested areas they continued to “dwell in tents, and in houses of cement,” while they patiently waited for the trees to grow (Helaman 3:9). Since cement must be made of limestone [see. p. 63], there was no lack of stone for building in the north. Why then did they not simply build of stone and forget about the cement and wood? Because, surprising as it may seem, ancient people almost never built of stone. Even when the magnificent “king Noah built many elegant and spacious buildings,” their splendor was that of carved wood and precious metal, like the palace of any great lord of Europe or Asia, with no mention of stone (Mosiah 11:8-9). The Book of Mormon boom cities went up rapidly (Mosiah 23:5; 27:6), while the builders were living in tents. And these were not stone cities: Nephite society was even more dependent on forests than is our own” – Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, 2nd Edition, Chapter 29, Building Materials, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co. [1964].
Helaman 3:7 And there being but little timber upon the face of the land, nevertheless the people who went forth became exceeding expert in the working of cement; therefore they did build houses of cement, in the which they did dwell. 8 And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east. 9 And the people who were in the land northward did dwell in tents and in houses of cement, and they did suffer whatsoever tree should spring up upon the face of the land that it should grow up, that in time they might have timber to build their houses, yea, their cities, and their temples and their synagogues and their sanctuaries, and all manner of their buildings. 10 And it came to pass as timber was exceedingly scarce in the land northward, they did send forth much by the way of shipping. 11 And thus they did enable the people in the land northward that they might build many cities, both of wood and of cement. 12 And it came to pass that there were many of the people of Ammon who were Lamanites by birth, did also go forth into this land.
Burnt Lime Plaster (“cement”)
There is a temple mound situated above the Ohio River near Cincinnati. “Fragments of burnt limestone may still be seen on the top. The mound is a rectangle two hundred and twenty-five feet long by one hundred and twenty feet broad, and seven feet high.” In contrast to the hewn stone buildings and altars of Mexico, the Ohio mound has the right dimensions to have accommodated a timber and burnt lime plaster (“cement”) building of the size and proportions of Solomon’s Temple.” J. P. Maclean, The Mound Builders – Archaeology of Butler County, Ohio, 1904, pp. 222-223.
Huts located at Fort Ancient, Lebanon, OH, were made of rectangular or circular sapling frames covered in mats, bark and animal hides. These huts may have been similar to the type of homes built by the Nephites. (Photos by Rod Meldrum and Found on Page 349 of Annotated Book of Mormon)
The outer wall of this timber-built circular hut, shown above, depicts how they were covered with clay daub, a type of “cement” filler (see p. 63 Annotated Book of Mormon). (Right photo by Bill) Typical Hopewell Indian hut.
(Left) Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. In: Wilbur Sturtevant Nye, Plains Indian raiders: the final phases of warfare from the Arkansas to the Red River, with original Photographs by William S. Soule. University of Oklahoma Press, 1st edition, 1968, ISBN 0806111755, p. 400. On the left: Homes built by Plains Indians with timber frames and thatch roofs.
(Above) Angel Mounds, located in southwest Indiana had defensive walls made of timber plastered with a type of cement. (Photos by Rod Meldrum and also on page 383 of Annotated Book of Mormon)
(Above) Depiction of an Ancient Indian Village with Walled Fortifications Cahokia Mounds, Illinois
NEPHITE CITIES BUILT WITH WOOD BURNED
▪ “And many great and notable cities were sunk and many were burned” (3 Nephi 8:14). ▪ “And behold, that great city Jacobugath which was inhabited by the people of King Jacob, have I caused to be burned with fire” (3 Nephi 9:9). ▪ “And behold the city of Laman and the city of Josh and the city of Gad and the city of Kishkumen, have I caused to be burned with fire” (3 Nephi 9:10). ▪ “And it came to pass that whatsoever lands we had passed by and the inhabitants there were not gathered in were destroyed by the Lamanites, and their towns and villages and cities were burned with fire” (Mormon 5:5). ▪ “And he [Shiz] did overthrow many cities, and he did slay both women and children, and he did burn the cities” (Ether 14:17; Jaredite timber cities).
“And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood” – 2 Nephi 5:15.
“And the people who were in the land northward did dwell in tents, and in houses of cement, and they did suffer whatsoever tree should spring up upon the land that it should grow up, that in time they might have timber to build their houses, yea, their cities, and their temples, and their synagogues, and their sanctuaries, and all manner of their buildings” – Helaman 3:9.
Since the Nephites and Jaredites built their cities primarily out of wood, with no mention in the text of any buildings made of stone, burning would be the most effective way to destroy them.
(Above) “American Indian Life in the Late Prehistoric Period” By Susan A. Walton Courtesy of Hopewell Cultural Center, Chillicothe, Ohio
(Right) Chief of the Taensa Indians Receiving La Salle. March 20, 1682 By George Catlin (July 26, 1796 December 23, 1872) Wooden Homes of the Taensa Indians.
American Cement
“This name has been lately given to a geological compound, so arranged that it crystallizes into perfect stone. It is now well settled, that we can prepare the constituent parts of various rocks so as to render them subject to the laws of affinity, which soon unites them into their former solid state. It is now generally believed that all rocks were once in a liquid, or semi-liquid state, so as to admit of motion among their particles. As the laws of nature are immutable, it is obvious that if the elements of various rocks are brought into the same state, in which chance often throws them on the surface of the globe, their crystallization is certain. And sometimes we find fragments of different rocks and pebbles united by an intervening formation which has crystallized around them. Hence the production of artificial stone is as much the work of nature as the fruit of an apple-tree. When their natural products are being developed, we may vary the soil which gives nourishment to the latter, and the elements which enter into the composition of the former.—Buffalo Paper.” American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, Volume 3 Page 76 edited by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Elizabeth Manning page 76
Jonathan Neville about Cement
I’m getting questions about cement, so I’ll repeat what I’ve said about one of my favorite “Kno-Whys” of all time.
The Temple of the Inscriptions, built hundreds of years after Book of Mormon times- Mesomania in all its glory
The only known Nephite cement was the cement that Moroni used when he built the stone box for the plates, as described by Joseph and Oliver.
Unless by now the Mesomaniacs have talked themselves into disbelieving what Joseph and Oliver said about the box, even they have to admit that Moroni used Nephite cement in New York. There is no other instance of Nephite cement that we can identify with 100% confidence.
“The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement.” Joseph Smith-History 1:52.
Oliver Cowdery (who, according to Book of Mormon Central, was an ignorant speculator so you won’t find this in any of their no-wise) described the situation on the Hill Cumorah this way:
“First, a hole of sufficient depth, (how deep I know not) was dug. At the bottom of this was laid a stone of suitable size, the upper surface being smooth. At each edge was placed a large quantity of cement, and into this cement, at the four edges of this stone, were placed, erect, four others, their bottom edges resting in the cement at the outer edges of the first stone. The four last named, when placed erect, formed a box, the corners, or where the edges of the four came in contact, were also cemented so firmly that the moisture from without was prevented from entering. It is to be observed, also, that the inner surface of the four erect, or side stones was smoothe. This box was sufficiently large to admit a breast-plate, such as was used by the ancients to defend the chest, &c. from the arrows and weapons of their enemy. From the bottom of the box, or from the breast-plate, arose three small pillars composed of the same description of cement used on the edges; and upon these three pillars was placed the record of the children of Joseph, and of a people who left the tower far, far before the days of Joseph, or a sketch of each…” http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/95
This was in New York, not Mesoamerica.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Moroni knew how to work with cement in New York; he and his father Mormon wrote the Book of Mormon while they lived in what is now New York. Moroni told Joseph that the record was “written and deposited not far from” his home.
The fun part about this no-wise is how the Book of Mormon never mentions the people building with stone (except one wall in Alma 48:8). They built with wood and with wood and cement.
Helaman 3:11 “And thus they did enable the people in the land northward that they might build many cities, both of wood and of cement.”
That’s right. Wood. Cement.
Not stone.
And yet, all the evidence cited by the no-wise involves ancient Central Americans building with stone and cement.
This might seem like nitpicking, but it’s an essential difference. If we’re looking for the Book of Mormon culture described by the text, we’re not looking for a culture that built with massive stones, engraved their history on stella, etc.
By Minerva Teichert
In fact, in a thousand years of history, exactly one engraved stone is even mentioned (Omni 1:20), and that was because its uniqueness made it so remarkable. And it wasn’t even a Nephite or Lamanite who engraved it.
We’re looking for a culture that built with earth and wood, primarily. They only used cement when they needed to let timber grow, because they preferred to build with timber. Only in one instance, Helaman 3, (again, so unusual it deserved special mention) with wood and cement.
IOW, the “cement” requirement describes ancient North American culture and excludes ancient Central American culture.
Of course the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs advocates cite “cement” as a “correspondence” between the Book of Mormon and Mesoamerica. I’d like to know of any human society that did not use a material that could be called “cement.” It’s another illusory correspondence, designed to support the rejection of what Joseph and Oliver taught about Cumorah in New York.
You can see archaeological reconstructions of ancient wood and cement structures at museums in Ohio.
And they are houses, just as the Book of Mormon describes.
Naturally, we don’t expect much, if any, Nephite cement to exist today. Even modern cement doesn’t last a long time where there is freezing and thawing.
Notice that Moroni knew this when he buried his stone box into the hill Cumorah and kept the moisture from entering.
We all wish Joseph or Oliver had kept a sample of Moroni’s cement. But at least they left us this detailed account of it.
Which, in any rational world, would be enough evidence to tell us where the Book of Mormon actually took place.
“I pulverized the limestone to powder and heated it to incandescence, converting some of the limestone (calcium carbonate) to calcium oxide. Ancient North Americans capable of smelting copper, could have produced temperatures hot enough to make moisture resistant lime plaster. Burnt lime “plaister” was known to the Israelites of old. (Leviticus 14:42, Isaiah 33:12) Hebrew scripture, in fact, may have inspired Nephite “cement”.
I then made a “wattle and daub” type structure of reeds cemented with clay.
Model “wattle and daub” structure with moisture resistant coating
I mixed the cooked powdered limestone with water (it warmed exothermically as I mixed in the water). I applied the moist paste to the exterior of the reed and clay model. When dry, the cooked lime plaster formed a moisture resistant coating on the exterior of the model shelter.
“Wattle and daub” type structures are known to have been made by many ancient peoples around the world, particularly in areas where timber was scarce…
A 19th Century definition of “cement” is “any substance applied in a soft or glutinous state to the surfaces of solid bodies to make them cohere firmly”. (Oxford English Dictionary)
The mound builders of North America are known to have made “wattle and daub” houses using materials that qualify for the definition of “cement” in use in Joseph Smith’s day. The Bible makes mention of “daubed” structures. (Ezekiel 13:15).” W. Vincent Coon
“I, Nephi, did build a Temple by Ken Corbett. Click to see Ken’s Art
The outside of the temple may have been finished with a mortar cement (As seen in this painting above), made out of limestone which was prevalent in the Promised Land. We also find mention of cement houses in the Book of Mormon. Helaman 3:7. “Lime mortar is a type of mortar composed of lime and an aggregate such as sand, mixed with water. It is one of the oldest known types of mortar, dating back to the 4th century BC and widely used in Ancient Rome and Greece. After processing, products derived from limestone have the unique ability to return fairly quickly to their original chemical form.” Lucas, A. 2003 Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries.
*Clay: In ancient Hebrew, the word “chomer” (pronounced as kho’mer) may be translated into “cement” but is synonymous with clay and is more commonly used to represent a type of filler or daub than it is to represent cement. (See p. 349 for examples.) (*https://biblehub.com/hebrew/2563.htm)
I. חֹ֫מֶר noun masculine cement, mortar, clay; — ׳חabsolute Genesis 11:3 13t.; construct Isaiah 10:6 2t.; — 1 mortar, cement for holding building-stones (brick) together Genesis 11:3 (J), Exodus 1:14 (P; both “” לְבֵנִים); Nahum 3:14 (“” טיט). 2 clay: a. as material of vessels Jeremiah 18:4,6, היצר ׳ח Isaiah 29:16, in simile of God’s fashioning man Isaiah 45:9; Isaiah 64:7; Job 10:9; as material of human bodies ׳בָּתֵּי ח Job 4:19; compare Job 33:6; as material of bulwarks (disparagingly) Job 13:12; חותם ׳ח = seal-clay i.e. clay upon which seal is pressed. b. = mire חוצות ׳ח Isaiah 10:6; ׳הֹרָנִי לַח Job 30:19 he hath cast me into the mire, i.e. deeply humiliated me (עָפָר and אֵפֶר in “” clause); as simile of commonness, abundance Job 27:16 (“” עָפָר).
The temple would be built on the highest point of the Nephite settlement. (Painting represents Lookout Mountain above Moccasin Bend on the Tennessee River). It would be facing directly east symbolic of The Savior’s coming. It was to be built like Solomon’s. The altars of the temple were made of stacked stone, not hewn stone. “The word in Exodus 20:25 which is translated as ‘tool’ is the Hebrew חרב which most literally means ‘sword’. There explains that a sword is designed to shorten life, while an altar is designed to lengthen life by being used to achieve atonement. It makes sense, therefore, that one should not be used in the formation of the other.” Rashi, Medieval French Rabbi.
In reference to Solomon’s Temple, the LDS Bible Dictionary says; “The temple walls were composed of hewn stone made ready at the quarry. The roof was of cedar and the walls were paneled with it. The cedar was carved with figures (cherubim, palm trees, and flowers) and was overlaid with gold fitted to the carving. All the materials for the house were prepared before they were brought to the site… There were two temple courts. The inner court was surrounded by a wall consisting of three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams.” 1 Kgs. 6:36. “And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.” 1 Kings 5:18. “Pillars of Solomon’s temple (1 Kgs. 7:21; 2 Chr. 3:17); the names denote “He will establish” [Jachin] and “In Him is strength” [Boaz]. The pillars, which stood on the south and north sides of the porch, were probably ornamental and not intended to support any part of the weight of the building.” LDS Bible Dictionary.
More about Ancient Cement
The natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee: up to the first settlements therein by the white people, in the year 1768 BY JOHN HAYWOOD, OF THE COUNTY OF DAVIDSON, THE STATE OF TENNESSEE. NASHVILLE : PRINTED BY GEORGE WILCOX, 1823. Page 356-7
In the year 1794, was discovered, in North Carolina, a subterranean wall, about twelve miles above Salisbury, in Rowan county. It was parallel to a small branch, which ran into a creek about 30 yards below the wall. It is ten or twelve yards distant from the stream, and runs into a hill on the side of a branch, and upon the upper part of it. On this side of the rivulet and extending to it, was a cleared field. The rain water running from the hill to the branch, carried away in a gully, the soil above the wall, and exposed it to view. The inner side was then uncovered, as well as the outer, by digging. It is somewhat less than two feet thick. It is said, that as the hill rises, the wall rises, still keeping its upper part at the same distance below the surface as it was in the bottom. The wall is perfectly straight, except a small circular offset of about six feet, after which it is continued in its former direction.
Some persons have dug ten or twelve feet by the side of the wall, without finding its bottom, or any alteration in its form. The stones of which it is composed, are all of a dark blue colour, containing iron, of the size and shape of small bricks, and exactly similar to others on the opposite hill, about the distance of 250 or 300 yards, where an abundance of the same sort of stones was to be seen in 1794. These stones, seven or eight inches long, are placed across the wall, and in the middle are stones of all sorts and shapes. There is between the stones a mortar, or cement, the outer side of which is of a ferruginous or dark colour ; the inside, of the thickness of one sixth or eighth of an inch, was a pure white substance, of the precise colour of lime, made of burnt limestone, or oyster shells, and rendered adhesive by the addition of water ; in which state being laid away, it had afterwards become dry and hard.
When the outer stones do not exactly fit, there seems to be a small fragment of stone wedged in so as to fill the space. The mortar in some places is said to be an inch thick, where the stones do not exactly fit to one another. The wall seems to have been plastered on both sides with the same kind of mortar. He who has not seen it may think it a work of nature ; but not him who has — one of whom is the writer. I look at it, and the hill above, and adjoining to it, will not fail to force the idea, of soil heaped in a diluted state, against, upon, and over the wall, without throwing it down. I would rather say, of settling against and reposing upon it, till it acquired a more solid consistence by exposure to the sun and wind. A lesser wall has since been discovered at the distance of five or six miles from this. It has been traced fifty or sixty feet. It is only seven inches thick, and all the stones reach quite across the wall. These walls are probably of the same age.
In 1783, in the county of Craven, in North Carolina, at the plantation of General William Bryant, was a stream on which he had a mill. A point of land projected into the stream, against which the dam was made to abut. Into the bluff lie cut twenty feet or more, for a site for the millhouse. At the “bottom of this cavity, in red clay, the diggers filled a hard glass bottle, of uncommon thickness, with a short neck, and the lower part with bulges projecting on the sides, as if protruded by the pressure of the bottle to the ground when in a plastic state. Near the spot where the bottle was found, when a number of fire coals and some chumps. The bottle was fifteen or twenty feet at least below the surface of the bluff, and more than thirty feet from the margin of the stream.
Along the Ohio, where the river in many places swells over its banks, hearths and fire-places are seen, two, four and six feet below the surface It is supposed by some to be a long time since the dirt was deposited over them. Around them are immense quantities of muscle shells, bones of animals, &c. Upon the surface above these chimneys and fireplaces, there grew, at the first settlement of the country by the whites, as large trees as any in the forest. The conclusion made by some, is, that a large space, probably l,000 years, has elapsed since these hearths were deserted. Muscle shells used in all the pottery of the ancient inhabitants, and found at all their dwellings, shows a much greater abundance of them produced in our waters in those days, than at the present; a much more agreeable taste in the muscle than at the present day, and of course a change in the waters themselves, to much more freshness now than then. Source: https://archive.org/stream/naturalaborigina00hayw#page/n10/mode/2up
More of Angel Mound’s recreated palisades of cement in Evansville, Indiana.
It has been almost 9 years since our friend Jonathan Neville first discovered at the Joseph Smith Papers online, and let the world know about these 8-Letters.
In my opinion the eight letters that Joseph asked Oliver to write about the History of the Church in 1835, should be read by everyone, and I feel they could even be scripture. (Oh, that is amazing, part of Letter 1 is scripture. Am I kidding? No! JSH 1:75n). Why haven’t you heard about them?
We know those historians of the Mesoamerican theory who believe in two Cumorah’s, don’t want anyone to know these letters exist. It would validate our Heartlander belief that there is only one Cumorah in NY and no where else. See Mesoamerican response of how Jonathan Neville is wrong here. I want to be fair, and let you read both sides of the issue and decide for yourself.
Joseph Smith had these letters copied into his personal journal. (That is how important they were to Joseph).They are online at the link below. Once at that link scroll down a few pages and the 8 Letters begin with the following words beginning with the bold title: Editorial Note
“The following section includes transcripts of eight letters Oliver Cowdery wrote in 1834 and 1835 regarding JS’s visions of an angel and his discovery of the gold plates of the Book of Mormon. Cowdery addressed the letters to William W. Phelps and published them as a series in the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate between October 1834 and October 1835.” Joseph Smith Papers
Contents of Stone Box
There is also much confusion about what was contained in the stone box where Joseph received the plates from Moroni. Most members of the Church don’t understand there were two depositories at Hill Cumorah. In addition to the stone box where the gold plates were deposited, there was a separate cave at Hill Cumorah at a different spot than the stone box, that was about 15 feet deep by 15 feet wide, where wagon loads of plates were deposited, along with the Liahona, Sword of Laban, and other scrolls, papers. and artifacts. Read quote here: “The hill Cumorah, with the surrounding vicinity, is distinguished as the great battlefield on which, and near which, two powerful nations were concentrated with all their forces. Men, women and children fought till hundreds of thousands on both sides were hewn down, and left to molder upon the ground. . . . These new plates were given to Moroni to finish the history. And all the ancient plates, Mormon deposited in Cumorah, about three hundred and eighty-four years after Christ. When Moroni, about thirty-six years after, made the deposit of the book entrusted to him, he was, without doubt, inspired to select a department of the hill separate from the great depository of the numerous volumes hid up by his father. The particular place in the hill where Moroni secreted the book, was revealed, by the angel, to the prophet Joseph Smith, to whom the volume was delivered in September, A.D. 1827. But the grand repository of all the numerous records of the ancient nations of the western continent, was located in another department of the hill, and it’s contents under the charge of holy angels, until the day should come for them to be transferred to the sacred temple of Zion.” 1866 Orson Pratt Millennial Star (28 (27): 417)
Also at the end of this blog about the the letters and the stone box, I want your help in sharing your opinion on a question about the contents of “pillars” in the stone box, but how many pillars were there? By the way, was there found the Liahona or Sword in that box?
Did you know that Joseph had a seer stone or two while he was young? Almost everyone near Palmyra had a favorite stone or rock. We never hear in scripture that Joseph used his rock to translate the plates, however. What did Joseph use and what was contained in the stone box? You will learn some things you weren’t aware of, most likely.
DID YOU KNOW?
Of Oliver’s eight letters, portions of Letter I, are found in our scriptures and canonized? “See Joseph Smith – History after (See * after the number 75) verse 75.” The source reference is from Messenger and Advocate, vol. 1 (October 1834), pp. 14–16, which was originally published as Letter I. (This is an amazing fact that all members of the Church should know about. Ask yourself, why don’t you know this? Has it been hidden or not disclosed to us by some active member Historians and Intellectuals of the Church)? I believe the answer is possibly! Most of these Historians are wonderful people, but don’t want some of us to know any possible fallacies of them being wrong, about some history they want us to believe.
LETTER VII IS PUBLISHED IN THESE PUBLICATIONS: Messenger and Advocate (Kirtland 1835) Copied into Joseph Smith’s Personal Journal (1835) Quoted in Orson Pratt’s Pamphlet (1840) Gospel Reflector (Philadelphia 1841) Times and Seasons (Nauvoo 1841) The Prophet (New York City 1844-45) Liverpool Pamphlet (1844) Millennial Star (1866) Improvement Era (Salt Lake City 1899)
“I think Letter VII was reprinted so many times because it was so important. Oliver’s history was the most complete history of the early days of the Church until the serialized History of Joseph Smith began running in the Times and Seasons in 1842, but it was also important for people to know that the New York hill was a touchstone for the Book of Mormon. It was a connection between ancient and modern times–a pin in the map.” Jonathan Neville
Joseph Smith’s History, 1834-1836, contains Oliver’s letters, including Letter VII. You can find it in the Joseph Smith Papers starting with Chapter 1 on page 17. Oliver’s letters appear several pages later. Oliver Cowdery’s Letter VII as it appears in Joseph Smith’s own history “Letter VII,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, July 1835, 1:155–159 (Key to finding letter VII is to scroll down until you find the July 1835 article).
Letter I to Letter VIII Introduction
From the Joseph Smith Papers Project- History, 1834–1836 Joseph Smith Papers.org Editorial Note”
The following section includes transcripts of eight letters Oliver Cowdery wrote in 1834 and 1835 regarding JS’s visions of an angel and his discovery of the gold plates of the Book of Mormon. Cowdery addressed the letters to William W. Phelps and published them as a series in the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate between October 1834 and October 1835. The titles and formatting employed in this history are similar to those in the published series of articles, indicating that the Cowdery letters were copied into the history from the Messenger and Advocate, not from a manuscript version of the letters.
Frederick G. Williams could have begun the transcription in JS’s history as early as 6 December 1834, the date of Cowdery’s last historical entry in the preceding section of the history. However, Cowdery probably gave the history to Williams around 2 October 1835, when he gave Williams JS’s journal. On 29 October 1835, JS retrieved the history from Williams and delivered it to Warren Parrish, who continued copying the Cowdery letters. It is likely that Parrish finished copying the letters by early April 1836, when he gave JS’s journal (and presumably the 1834–1836 history along with it) to Warren Cowdery
In the first letter [which part is canonized in our current scriptures], Oliver Cowdery recounted his experiences with JS beginning when the two first met in April 1829. The letter includes an account of the vision he and JS had of John the Baptist, who gave them the authority to baptize. After composing this letter, but before its publication, Cowdery developed a new history-writing plan: he decided that in subsequent letters he would relate the “full history of the rise of the church,” beginning with JS’s early life and visions. As editor of the Messenger and Advocate, Cowdery prefaced the published version of the first letter with an explanation (also transcribed into the history) of the new plan. Although he had no firsthand knowledge of church history prior to April 1829, Cowdery assured his readers that “our brother J. Smith Jr. has offered to assist us. Indeed, there are many items connected with the fore part of this subject that render his labor indispensable.” Some passages in the ensuing narrative seem to have been related to Cowdery by JS, since Cowdery recounts events in which only JS participated.
Cowdery composed the letters to inform the Latter-day Saints of the history of their church, but he also wrote for the non-Mormon public. Employing florid romantic language, frequent scriptural allusions, and much dramatic detail, he clearly intended to present a rhetorically impressive account of early Mormon history. He placed the rise of the church in a dispensational framework, characterizing the time between the end of the New Testament and JS’s early visions as a period of universal apostasy. He included the revivalism of various denominations during the Second Great Awakening, which JS experienced in his youth, as an example of the doctrinal confusion and social disharmony present in Christendom. Throughout the series of letters, he defended JS’s character and that of the Smith family, and his explicitly apologetic statements include apparent allusions to both Alexander Campbell’s Delusions (1832) and Eber Howe ’s Mormonism Unvailed (1834).
Beginning in the third letter, Cowdery provided the most extensive account of the origins of the Book of Mormon published up to that time. He related JS’s initial visions of the angel Moroni and, using biblical prophecies, elaborated on the angel’s message concerning the gathering of Israel in the last days in preparation for the Millennium. Cowdery continued his narrative up to, but did not include, JS’s receiving the gold plates in September 1827.
The transcription of the Oliver Cowdery letters into JS’s history was evidently conceived in terms of the entire series, not as a piecemeal copying of the individual letters. As noted above, Cowdery probably gave the “large journal” containing the history begun in 1834 to Williams in October 1835, the month of the Messenger and Advocate issue in which his final installment was published.
By the time Williams received the history, Cowdery may have already written the final letter; he had at least conceived of it as the final installment in his series. With the serialized Cowdery letters complete or nearing completion, the new history kept in the “large journal” could serve as a repository—more permanent than unbound newspapers—for a copied compilation of the entire series.
Letters from Messenger and Advocate The following communication was designed to have been published in the last No. of the star; but owing to a press of other matter it was laid over for this No. of the Messenger and ad[v]ocate. Since it was writen, upon further reflection, we have thought that a full history of the rise of the church of the Latter Day Saints, and the most interesting parts of its progress, to the present time, would be worthy the perusal of the Saints.— If circumstances admit, an article on this subject will appear on in each subsequent No. of the Messenger and advocate, until the time when the church was driven from Jackson Co. Mo. by a lawless banditti; & such other remarks as may be thought appropriate and interesting.
That our narrative may be correct, and particularly the introduction, it is proper to inform our patrons, that our brother J. Smith Jr. has offered to assist us. Indeed, there are many items connected with the fore part of this subject that render his labor indispensible. With his labor and with authentic documents now in our possession, we hope to render this a pleasing and agreeable narrative, well worth the examination and perusal of the Saints.
To do <Justice to> this subject will require time and space: we therefore ask the forbearance of our readears, assuring them that it shall be founded upon facts.
The breastplate was worn under Joseph’s shirt and a farmers hat was possibly used to prevent the scribe from seeing the plates and the spectacles.
The Proper Method of Translation in my opinion is utilizing the three items that were contained in the stone box at Cumorah. There were only the gold plates, the breastplate, and the two stones in a silver bow similar to spectacles. With these three items the translation of the Book of Mormon came forth. No where in the scriptures do we hear of Joseph using a stone in a hat to translate. We also find credible sources that a curtain was not placed between Joseph and the scribe. For detailed explanation you can click below the artwork for additional information about scriptural verification and the words of Lucy Mack Smith.
Did the spectacles really have the diamond shape in them? Lucy describes it here: “Examining it with no covering but a silk handkerchief, found that it consisted of two smooth three-cornered diamonds set in glass, and the glasses were set in silver bows connected with each other in much the same way that old-fashioned spectacles are made.” Lucy Mack Smith-Joseph Smith History
The Authentic Stone Box & The Cave at Cumorah
“Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift and power of God” Joseph Smith- HC 4:537
The items above are the only contents of the stone box where Joseph received the plates. There was not a single seer stone, there was not the Liahona, nor the Sword of Laban. There is no scripture that says this, many historians have made this up as you can see today in the Church History Museum, in the picture below.
Heartlanders say, “Mormon’s depository and Moroni’s stone box are in the same hill Cumorah in New York in different locations.” [One Hill Cumorah only in New York] Mesoamericanists say, “Mormon’s depository is at some hill in Mexico, and Moroni’s stone box is in New York” [Neither one was necessarily called Cumorah. See “Saints” Vol. 1]
Video at the Church History Museum
The Liahona and Sword were in the large cave at Hill Cumorah that Joseph entered with Oliver, where there were many many plates and records. Wilford Woodruff said, “[Joseph] went [into] a Cave in the Hill Comoro with Oliver Cowdry & deposited those plates upon a table or shelf. In that room were deposited a large amount of gold plates containing sacred records… Joseph Smith said that cave contained tons of choice treasures & records.” Wilford Woodruff Journal, 11 December 1869
Heber C. Kimball said, “Joseph and others… went into a cave in the hill Cumorah, and saw more records than ten men could carry… There were books piled up on tables, book upon book. Those records this people will yet have, if they accept of the Book of Mormon and observe its precepts, and keep the commandments.” Heber C. Kimball
Oliver Cowdery
“The manner in which the plates were deposited: First, a hole of sufficient depth, (how deep I know not) was dug. At the bottom of this was laid a stone of suitable size, the upper surface being smooth. At each edge was placed a large quantity of cement, and into this cement, at the four edges of this stone, were placed, erect, four others, their bottom edges resting in the cement at the outer edges of the first stone. The four last named, when placed erect, formed a box, the corners, or where the edges of the four came in contact, were also cemented so firmly that the moisture from without was prevented from entering. It is to be observed, also, that the inner surface of the four erect, or side stones was smoothe. This box was sufficiently large to admit a breast-plate, such as was used by the ancients to defend the chest, &c. from the arrows and weapons of their enemy. From the bottom of the box, or from the breast-plate, arose three small pillars composed of the same description of cement used on the edges; and upon these three pillars was placed the record of the children of Joseph, and of a people who left the tower far, far before the days of Joseph… I must not forget to say that this box, containing the record was covered with another stone, the bottom surface being flat and the upper, crowning. But those three pillars were not so lengthy as to cause the plates and the crowning stone to come in contact. I have now given you, according to my promise, the manner in which this record was deposited; though when it was first visited by our brother, in 1823, a part of the crowning stone was visible above the surface while the edges were concealed by the soil and grass, from which circumstances you will see, that however deep this box might have been placed by Moroni at first, the time had been sufficient to wear the earth so that it was easily discovered when once directed, and yet not enough to make a perceivable difference to the passer-by.” Oliver Cowdery, “Letter VIII,” October 1835
Empty with three small pillars
Translation tools with three small pillars
Joseph Smith Jr.
“Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim [“Lights and Perfections” or allegorically, “Doctrine and Truth”; see pp. xix, 446, 560-61, 551], and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them.” JSH 1:52
Lucy Mack Smith
Lucy Mack Smith said, “[Moroni, after telling Joseph about the record, said] but you cannot get it until you learn to keep the commandments of God For it is not to get gain. But it is to bring forth that light and intelligence which has been long lost in the Earth
Now Joseph beware or when you go to get the plates your mind will be filled with darkness and all manner of evil will rush into your mind. To prevent you from keeping the commandments of God that you may not succeed in doing his work and you must tell your father of this for he will believe every word you say.
The record is on a side hill on the Hill of Cumorah 3 miles from this place. Remove the grass and moss and you will find a large flat stone pry that up and you will find the record under it laying on 4 pillars of cement— then the angel left him.” JSP Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845 https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/41
What Do You Think? Two? Three? or Four? Pillars?
I think it is most likely there were two stones on the bottom crossways of the box as this is canonized information. The Letter VIII information is a good secondary witness that there was something that the plates were sitting on top of such as the three pillars and of course Lucy Mack’s witness is always credible as she mentioned four pillars.
Empty with two stones crossways of the boxTranslation tools with two stones crossways of the box“Years ago, when the church was working on filming “How Rare A Possession,” (See Video Here) the Church contacted brother [L…] in our stake. [Le…] was quite a well-known, successful landscaper in the area (I also dated his son). They asked him if he could locate a rock that would be as close to the dimensions of the rock that would have covered the stone box where the plates were deposited.[L…] took this task VERY seriously and read the entire BofM in three days (morning and night). At around 3AM, just as he finished the last page, he knelt down in prayer and asked the Lord to guide him to such a rock. Upon finishing his supplication he heard a voice tell him to go to the Hill at that moment. He lived about 45 minutes from the Hill. By the time he arrived, the sun was just starting to rise. He said within 15 minutes he was directed to a spot on the Hill and as he peered down he noticed a tip of a rock jutting out of the hillside. As he started to dig, he realized how large this stone truly was. Then he heard another voice tell him, this is THE stone....the very stone that laid on top of the box. He immediately stopped his digging and decided to contact the Church. Upon calling them to tell them he believes he found THE stone, the brother told him that they knew and already had 4 men on a flight out there to meet with him and that he was to wait until they got there before removal of the stone. He said it took 5 men to lift the stone. The stone was used in the filming of the movie and is currently kept in the granite vaults in UT. You may be aware from your historical research that the actual stone box was reported by Oliver Cowdery that “the casket had been washed down to the foot of the Hill.” Thus, the box is no longer.” Kathy Burris as told in an email to Rod Meldrum. See complete blog here.“Years ago, when the church was working on filming “How Rare A Possession,” (See Video Here) the Church contacted brother [L…] in our stake. [Le…] was quite a well-known, successful landscaper in the area (I also dated his son). They asked him if he could locate a rock that would be as close to the dimensions of the rock that would have covered the stone box where the plates were deposited.[L…] took this task VERY seriously and read the entire BofM in three days (morning and night). At around 3AM, just as he finished the last page, he knelt down in prayer and asked the Lord to guide him to such a rock. Upon finishing his supplication he heard a voice tell him to go to the Hill at that moment. He lived about 45 minutes from the Hill. By the time he arrived, the sun was just starting to rise. He said within 15 minutes he was directed to a spot on the Hill and as he peered down he noticed a tip of a rock jutting out of the hillside. As he started to dig, he realized how large this stone truly was. Then he heard another voice tell him, this is THE stone....the very stone that laid on top of the box. He immediately stopped his digging and decided to contact the Church. Upon calling them to tell them he believes he found THE stone, the brother told him that they knew and already had 4 men on a flight out there to meet with him and that he was to wait until they got there before removal of the stone. He said it took 5 men to lift the stone. The stone was used in the filming of the movie and is currently kept in the granite vaults in Utah. You may be aware from your historical research that the actual stone box was reported by Oliver Cowdery that “the casket had been washed down to the foot of the Hill.” Thus, the box is no longer.” Kathy Burris in an email to Rod Meldrum 2015.
Now you know some new things about Church History. even though I could be wrong, I have studied and researched and believe this information is correct. May you be inspired to search out truth where ever it may be and seek your own personal revelation.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have received a spiritual witness that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and it is a second witness with the Bible as a Testament of Jesus Christ.
There is a difference of opinion with some members of the Church about the method of translation of the Book of Mormon by the Prophet Joseph Smith, but all active members of the Church believe the Book of Mormon was translated by the “Gift and Power of God.”
Scriptural Evidence vs Theorists New Narrative!
The Church and its Prophet and Apostles have not determined what the specific method of translation was, as just knowing the doctrine of the Church that the Book of Mormon is the word of God is most important, which I am in total agreement with. The Church is very supportive of anyone to have their own opinion about what instrument or method that Joseph Smith used. That is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are blessed with knowing the Doctrine’s of the Lord’s Church through Prophets and Apostles, but on our personal opinions we have our freedom to choose.
Peep Stone
I believe the old stories about Joseph being tied to the occult came from the 1834 anti-Mormon book “Mormonism Unvailed” by E.D. Howe. Most of this was due to the book talking about the rock in the hat and some sort of evil Joseph must have been doing. I grew up in the sixties and my mother told me the peep stone in a hat was evil and I believed her. The majority of the Church agreed, but the church didn’t discuss the way the Urim and Thummim looked nor did they speak much about the Interpreters. We all just said, Joseph translated by the gift and power of God. [FYI In the Book of Mormon the term Urim and Thummim is never used. Instead they are always called “Interpreters”] But now in todays world, many people are trying to make Joseph and his method of peep stones evil, or strange again. That is why I share evidence in the scriptures to verify that Joseph only used as the scriptures say, “these two stones fastened to a breastplate” JSH 1:35, or he used the Interpreters, or he used the Urim and Thummim to translate, all three meaning the same thing.
Names of the same Instrument used to Translate the Book of Mormon
Three Instruments found in the Hill Cumorah
There are many names for the instrument used by Joseph Smith to translate the gold plates with. There seem to be only three people (Joseph, Oliver, and Lucy Smith who held and described the instruments under a linen) who actually saw all three instruments that were in the Hill Cumorah. There is much speculation on what to call those items. Joseph and Oliver of course are the first hand witnesses. In the Book of Mormon there is only one name for the instrument, and that is “INTERPRETERS.” No other word is found in the Book of Mormon which is speaking about the instrument of “two stones fastened to a breastplate.”
Various names of the proper instruments used, usually using a plural. 1- Interpreters (Word found in the Book of Mormon, and PGP) 2- Directors (Alma 37:21, 24. In 1920 “Interpreters” was changed to “Directors” in the Book of Mormon) 3- Urim and Thummim (Word found in the D&C, PGP, and the Old Testament, 4 times in The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith in the preface of the BofM) Urim and Thummim in the Old Testament is a different one than the one found in the Book of Mormon. 4- The Key (Lucy Mack Smith) 5- These stones, fastened to a breastplate 6- Two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow (Words found similar in many places) 7- Spectacles (JSP Letterbook 1/11) 8- Glasses (Luck Mack Smith, 9- 2 smooth 3 cornered diamonds set in glass and the glass was set in silver bows. (Lucy Mack Smith) 10- Two transparent stones, resembling glass, set in silver bows (Oliver Cowdery)
Did the translation instrument come from the Brother of Jared (Ether 4:5), or a stone Joseph found in a well when he was young?
These words are never found in association with the translation in scripture: 1- Peep Stone 2- Seer Stone 3- Seer Stones 4- Seer’s Stone 5- Stone in the hat 6- Stone 7- Single Stone 8- Gazelem (Stone, mentioned in Alma 37:23 but does not refer to translation)*
*Blog about the scripture, “Gazelem, a stone”, which really means, “Joseph Smith, a Seer”
Many Physical Instruments
“Some people have balked at this claim of physical instruments used in the divine translation process, but such aids to facilitate the communication of God’s power and inspiration are consistent with accounts in scripture. In addition to the Urim and Thummim, the Bible mentions other physical instruments used to access God’s power: the rod of Aaron, a brass serpent, holy anointing oils, the Ark of the Covenant, and even dirt from the ground mixed with saliva to heal the eyes of a blind man.” Gospel Topic Essays, Book of Mormon Translation
150 Years Ago in the Church
Here is some information from Jonathan Neville that you will enjoy, as I believe it to be a very accurate explanation of attitudes early in the Church and today.
“For over 150 years, LDS Church leaders taught that Joseph Smith translated the Nephite plates with the Urim and Thummim. From the early 1830s, critics said that Joseph produced the Book of Mormon by either (i) reading words off a seer stone he put in a hat or (ii) reading a manuscript written by Solomon Spalding and edited by Sidney Rigdon. All three alternatives were set out in the 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed. When that book was released in October 1834, Oliver Cowdery responded by declaring unambiguously that Joseph translated the record with the Urim and Thummim. You can see Oliver’s declaration in the Pearl of Great Price, at the end of Joseph Smith-History, JSH 175n or in the Joseph Smith papers here: https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/50
You might think that Oliver’s declaration, which Joseph Smith helped write and specifically endorsed multiple times, would end the debate.But no. A few decades ago, some LDS historians decided it was time to deal with “all the evidence.” They started what has been called the “New Mormon History” to bring out some of the evidence that differed from, and contradicted, the traditional Church history narratives. Among these was SITH. [Stone in the Hat] Historians largely rejected the Spalding theory, so they focused on SITH vs U&T. [Urim and Thummim]. (Sending the Spalding theory into oblivion is one reason why everyone has overlooked the key role it played, as I’ve discussed before.) Rough Stone Rolling was a key part of the New Mormon History’s focus on SITH, but lots of people contributed. The historians in the Church History department largely embraced the New Mormon History as well as M2C[Mesoamerican 2-Cumorah Theory], and the result is the presentation of SITH in the Ensign (which I discussed here), the lesson manuals, the videos, etc. Several justifications have been proposed. Some have claimed that when Joseph and Oliver said or wrote “Urim and Thummim” they really meant the peep stone Joseph found in a well. That obviously contradicts both what they said and the historical record. Others claim Joseph used both, but that also contradicts both what Joseph and Oliver always said. Some say the “SITH sayers” were all liars who hated Joseph Smith, but that also contradicts the historical record. Besides, people on the other side just say Joseph and Oliver were liars. Stalemate. In a recent presentation, I summarized it this way, leading to my own conclusions. As I mentioned at the outset, a longer version of this is available here:” Jonathan Nevillehttps://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/p/video-summary-of-sith-and-new-mormon.html
The Book of Mormon Is Tangible Evidence of the Restoration
Speaking about the method of Translation President Russell M. Nelson said, “Quite miraculous really, we have through the gift and power of God, we have a lot of suggestions about how it was done…” President Nelson also in this video demonstrated with a hat in his hands and spoke about the possible use of, as he said, “Urim and Thummim Seer Stones” as he is quoted as saying in the video titled. “The Book of Mormon Is Tangible Evidence of the Restoration.
The method of Translation is not a question about doctrine but about belief or opinion.
I don’t believe the stone in the hat was a proper method of translation.
The Brethren don’t often concern themselves with non-essential information. Doctrine and special witness of the Savior is most important to them, and it should be. Our wonderful Prophet and Apostles depend on historians and other quorums to research and answer historical questions, as they trust them as I do, to share accurate information.
No one except Joseph, Oliver and Lucy Mack Smith have ever seen the breastplate or the spectacles, so researchers could only share what their interpretation is of the information they have found. Many historians rarely look outside the box and there is always a hat or a rock nearby, so that makes it easy to demonstrate. Many historians also like to come up with new theories. Our Prophet is just re-sharing many things the historians have shared with him. That’s why the Brethren rarely say exactly how the translation happened as it is not revelation, so it really doesn’t concern them. I suppose it shouldn’t matter to most of us, as the spiritual confirmation that Joseph used the gift and power of God is the best answer. However, I enjoy searching for additional answers as Moroni said, “ye may know the truth of all things.”
The stone in the hat is not a fact but many historians and Church videos show it as the “New Narrative.” Nowhere in the scriptures does it even speak about it. Church Historians have developed consensus in their progressive thoughts, and they don’t like the traditionalist view. It’s just like the opinion that there is consensus that man causes global warming, so the intellectuals all agree on their non provable THEORY.
The stone in a hat is a theory. Our scriptures tell us many times Joseph used “these two stones fastened to a breastplate” JSH 1:35. And Oliver Cowdery in scripture said, “Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.” JSH 1:75n. Latter-day Saints who testify the Scriptures are true, should be able to agree that Joseph used those items which were in the stone box at the Hill Cumorah. Plates, Breastplate, and Interpreters.
The details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known
Elder Russell M. Nelson said this. “As Oliver Cowdery testified a few years later: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated *… the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.’ (JS—H 1:75n. The details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known. Yet we do have a few precious insights. David Whitmer wrote:
President Nelson by Ken Corbett
“Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.” (David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, Richmond, Mo.: n.p., 1887, p. 12.)…” A Treasured Testament 1993 By Elder Russell M. Nelson Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (* and color added)
In this talk by Elder Nelson he chose to use a quote from David Whitmer, which is fine with me. I don’t know more than our Apostles and I sure will never tell them what to ever say. I love and respect them. My comment is, if you read many other scriptures you can also know as Elder Nelson says, “The details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known.” I have chosen to use Elder Nelson’s talk and some scriptures to personally research, and I have decided not to depend on David Whitmer’s second had quote. I decided to use first hand quotes of Joseph and Oliver. What you do is of course up to you.
Edited Quote?
My commentary on Elder Nelson’s quote above, is also that the scripture quoted in JSH 1:75n above, adds more value when the last part of that scripture is not omitted by the ellipsis in pink above. Elder Nelson may have purposely left off a portion of that scripture with no intention whatsoever which is fine. I love our Prophet. My purpose is simply to find personal revelation to help me understand the method of translation, so I will use Elder Nelson’s and many other leaders, to help me come to a solid confirmation for myself. I am making the point that certain trusted historians, intellectuals, and editors may, at times, undermine the work of the Lord—intentionally or unintentionally—by their possible omission of certain words with an ellipse or by editing of certain quotes for the Brethren. I am not saying that happened here as I have no idea, but it could happen or does happen with some editors.
Here is the completed scripture that was not included in place of the *Pink ellipse above. “with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters.” This is a huge statement from scripture that helps me tremendously in understanding the entire context of what Joseph Smith was saying. The last sentence of the quote would say, “Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters.” JSH 1:75n. That complete sentence gives me clarity that Joseph did not use a stone in a hat.
Lucy Mack Smith’s Description
As I am personally researching translation methods I feel I am losing important meaning by repeating the scripture JSH 1:75 without the entire quote. As my thorough research continued, I found this ellipsis was included in at least 4 or 5 different talks by General Authorities including one in 2020. No Judgement on my part whatsoever, just an emphasis on detailed meaning about the entire scripture which helped me come to my opinion, that a stone in a hat was not used. (Talk references available on request).
This entire scripture to me, in JSH 1:75n is a confirmation to me personally that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim or the Interpreters, not a stone in a hat. Along with the two scriptures in JSH 1:35, and 42, it is clear to me the proper instrument used was “two stones in silver bows… fastened to a breastplate” like the picture below.
Personal Revelation
As you can see Elder Nelson above did say, “The details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known.” That means many, including some of the Apostles are not sure the exact method and neither am I. If they did, it would be part of our Doctrine. If we as members want to know additional information about non-doctrinal issues, I believe it is up to each of us individually to gain our own personal revelation about the translation process and many other things that may be important to us. For example I believe the Book of Mormon events happened in North America, based on my own study, research and personal revelation. The Church is neutral on that issue which is fine with me.
In another example of personal study, even though the Church has no official position on evolution, I have a personal opinion. I do not believe a cat can ever become a dog and that evolution can only come from within a species. “This is the most recent quote I can find about the evolution opinion by the Church. “The Church has no official position on the theory of evolution. Organic evolution, or changes to species’ inherited traits over time, is a matter for scientific study. Nothing has been revealed concerning evolution. Though the details of what happened on earth before Adam and Eve, including how their bodies were created, have not been revealed, our teachings regarding man’s origin are clear and come from revelation.” New Era 2016https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/2016/10/to-the-point/what-does-the-church-believe-about-evolution.html?lang=eng
However in 1987 Elder Nelson gave a great talk about evolution saying, “Through the ages, some without scriptural understanding have tried to explain our existence by pretentious words such as ex nihilo (out of nothing). Others have deduced that, because of certain similarities between different forms of life, there has been a natural selection of the species, or organic evolution from one form to another. Still others have concluded that man came as a consequence of a “big bang” that resulted in the creation of our planet and life upon it. To me, such theories are unbelievable!” “We are children of God, created by him and formed in his image. Recently I studied the scriptures simply to find how many times they testify of the divine creation of man. Looking up references that referred either to create or form (or their derivatives) with either man, men, male, or female in the same verse, I found that there are at least fifty-five verses of scripture that attest to our divine creation. So, we can either believe in evolution or the scriptures, not both.” The Magnificence of Man RUSSELL M. NELSON of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles March 29, 1987.
Elder Nelson quotes David Whitmer, Emma Smith, and Edmund Briggs in his A Treasured Testament article, which may be accurate quotes, but these individuals are all second and third hand witnesses. None of them ever saw Joseph translate the plates nor did they see the breastplate or the spectacles. I however feel the many Scriptures quoted [PDF File Available Below], along with the words of Joseph Smith and of Oliver Cowdery who were first hand accounts, ring most true to my heart as I have followed the council of Elder Benson who said, “Suppose a leader of the Church were to tell you that you were supporting the wrong side of a particular issue. Some might immediately resist this leader and his counsel or ignore it, but I would suggest that you first apply the fourth great civic standard for the faithful Saints. That standard is to live for, to get, and then to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit.”
Said Brigham Young: “I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him. … Let every man and woman know, by the whisperings of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not.” (JD, vol. 9, p. 150.)” Ezra Taft Benson April 1972 Conference, Civic Standards for the Faithful Saints.
Professors Opinions I Agree With
Two BYU Professors as I quote below, Craig Ostler and Joseph Fielding McConkie have the opinion that as I have researched I agree with, as I quote them from their article titled The Process of Translating the Book of Mormon. (Available online here and below).Elder Ostler and McConkie say, “As to David Whitmer’s explanation, it should be remembered that he never looked into the Urim and Thummim nor translated anything. His testimony of how the Book of Mormon was translated is hearsay. Spanning a period of twenty years (1869-1888), some seventy recorded testimonies about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon claim David Whitmer as their source. Though there are a number of inconsistencies in these accounts, David Whitmer was repeatedly reported to have said that after the loss of the 116 pages, the Lord took both the plates and the Urim and Thummim from the Prophet, [*]never to be returned. In their stead, David Whitmer maintained, the Prophet used an oval-shaped, chocolate-colored seer stone slightly larger than an egg.
Thus, everything we have in the Book of Mormon, according to Mr. Whitmer, was translated by placing the chocolate-colored stone[Similar to the picture on the left] in a hat into which Joseph would bury his head so as to close out the light. While doing so he could see “an oblong piece of parchment, on which the hieroglyphics would appear,” and below the ancient writing, the translation would be given in English. Joseph would then read this to Oliver Cowdery, who in turn would write it. If he did so correctly, the characters and the interpretation would disappear and be replaced by other characters with their interpretation (Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, 115, 157-58)… Continued below.
*Editors note: It is clear that the Urim and Thummim and the plates were returned to Joseph Smith shortly after the decision to allow Martin to take the 116 pages, Joseph was reprimanded but the translation continued as before. In Church History it says, “Joseph affirmed that he “translated from the plates,” and that he used the Urim and Thummim to do so. After the loss of the 116 pages by Martin Harris, both the plates and the Urim and Thummim were taken from him. Without the Urim and Thummim he could not translate.During this period Joseph made a short visit to his parents in Manchester, New York, and then returned again to Pennsylvania. “Immediately after my return home,” he recounted, “I was walking out a little distance, when, behold, the former heavenly messenger appeared and handed to me the Urim and Thummim again for it had been taken from me in consequence of my having wearied the Lord in asking for the privilege of letting Martin Harris take the writings, which he lost by transgression and I inquired of the Lord through it, and obtained the following [section 3]” (Smith, History of the Church, 1:21-22).
The Process of Translating the Book of Mormon by McConkie and Ostler continues, “Such an explanation is, in our judgment, simply fiction created for the purpose of demeaning Joseph Smith and to undermine the validity of the revelations he received after translating the Book of Mormon. We invite the reader to consider the following: First, for more than fifty years David Whitmer forthrightly rejected Joseph Smith, declaring him to be a fallen prophet. Though he never denied his testimony of the Book of Mormon, he rejected virtually everything else associated with the ministry of Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel. His rejection included both the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods, which were restored during the time the Book of Mormon was being translated and, of course, the revelations which would eventually constitute the Doctrine and Covenants. Second, according to David Whitmer’s account of how the Book of Mormon was translated, Joseph Smith was the instrument of transmission, while translation rested solely with the Lord. This is simply a reflection of the notion of divine dictation, which holds that every word of scripture comes from God himself. If David Whitmer’s account is to be accepted, revelation also includes spelling and punctuation. This notion is at odds with the explanation found in Doctrine and Covenants 8 and 9, which details how revelation comes. In this respect, Richard Anderson observed that Whitmer “after decades of reflection outside of the Church, concluded that no modification could possibly be made in any revelation. This highly rigid view of these revelations matched his highly rigid view of the origin of the Book of Mormon” (“By the Gift and Power of God,” 84).By contrast Brigham Young observed, “Should the Lord Almighty send an angel to re-write the Bible, it would in many places be very different from what it now is. And I will even venture to say that if the Book of Mormon were now to be re-written, in many instances it would materially differ from the present translation” (Journal of Discourses, 9:311). David Whitmer repeatedly said that if a word was misspelled, the translator would not be able to go on until it had been corrected. This hardly allows for the 3,913 changes that have been made between the first edition of the Book of Mormon and the edition presently in use. Third,if the process of translation was simply a matter of reading from a seer stone in a hat, surely Oliver Cowdery could do that as well, if not better, than Joseph Smith. After all, Oliver was a schoolteacher. How then do we account for Oliver’s inability to translate? Further, regarding the use of a hat in translation, Joseph’s brother William Smith explained that the Prophet used the Urim and Thummim attached to the breastplate by a rod that held the seer stones set in the rims of a bow before his eyes. “The instrument caused a strain on Joseph’s eyes, and he sometimes resorted to covering his eyes with a hat to exclude the light in part” (Smith, Rod of Iron 1, 3 [February 1924]: 7).Fourth, Joseph Smith repeatedly testified to having both the plates and the Urim and Thummim returned to him.”
[See my* Editor’s Note above in green]. He further testified that he translated from the plates by the use of the Urim and Thummim.
Spectacles Fastened to a Breastplate
The Process of Translating the Book of Mormon by McConkie and Ostler continues, “Fifth, David Whitmer gave inconsistent accounts of the instrument used to translate. Thomas Wood Smith, in a published response about an interview he had with David Whitmer, who told him that Joseph Smith used the Urim and Thummim in translating the Book of Mormon, wrote, “When I first read Mr. Traughber’s paper in the Herald of November 15th, I thought that I would not notice his attack at all, as I supposed that I was believed by the Church to be fair and truthful in my statements of other men’s views, when I have occasion to use them, and I shall make this reply only: That unless my interview with David Whitmer in January, 1876, was only a dream, or that I failed to understand plain English, I believed then, and since, and now, that he said that Joseph possessed, and used the Urim and Thummim in the translation of the inscriptions referred to, and I remember of being much pleased with that statement, as I had heard of the ‘Seer stone’ being used. And unless I dreamed the interview, or very soon after failed to recollect the occasion, he described the form and size of the said Urim and Thummim. The nearest approach to a retraction of my testimony as given . . . publicly in many places from the stand from January 1876, till now, is, that unless I altogether misunderstood ‘Father Whitmer’ on this point, he said the translation was done by the aid of the Urim and Thummim. If he says he did not intend to convey such an impression to my mind, then I say I regret that I misunderstood him, and unintentionally have misrepresented him. But that I understood him as represented by me frequently I still affirm” (as cited in Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, 56).Finally,the testimony of David Whitmer simply does not accord with the divine pattern. If Joseph Smith translated everything that is now in the Book of Mormon without using the gold plates, we are left to wonder why the plates were necessary in the first place. It will be remembered that possession of the plates placed the Smith family in considerable danger, causing them a host of difficulties. If the plates were not part of the translation process, this would not have been the case. It also leaves us wondering why the Lord directed the writers of the Book of Mormon to make a duplicate record of the plates of Lehi. This provision which compensated for the loss of the 116 pages would have served no purpose either.
Joseph used the same Interpreters the Brother of Jared sealed up. Ether 4:5
Further, we would be left to wonder why it was necessary for Moroni to instruct Joseph each year for four years before he was entrusted with the plates. We would also wonder why it was so important for Moroni to show the plates to the three witnesses, including David Whitmer. And why did the Lord have the Prophet show the plates to the eight witnesses? Why all this flap and fuss if the Prophet didn’t really have the plates and if they were not used in the process of translation? What David Whitmer is asking us to believe is that the Lord had Moroni seal up the plates and the means by which they were to be translated hundreds of years before they would come into Joseph Smith’s possession and then decided to have the Prophet use a seer stone found while digging a well so that none of these things would be necessary after all. Is this, we would ask, really a credible explanation of the way the heavens operate? When asked how the labor of translation was accomplished, the Prophet declined to answer, saying, “It was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the book of Mormon”(Cannon and Cook, Far West Record, 23).
Surely we do not look to the world or the understanding of the world for an answer. We would expect to find that understanding only as we come to understand in greater measure the operations of the Spirit of revelation.” The Process of Translating the Book of Mormon by Joseph Fielding McConkie (Professor of Ancient Scripture, BYU) and Craig J. Ostler (Assistant Professor of Church History and Doctrine, BYU) Color and Italics and Bold added. Full Article here.
Dr. Ostler’s Video Presentation
View a video from our Firm Foundation Conference by Dr. Craig J Ostler about the proper method of translation titled: “Book of Mormon Translation Instrument Descriptions-Interpreters, Urim & Thummim, and Seer Stones”
Bio: Dr. Ostler is a Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. Many years ago he served in the Bogotá, Colombia mission, and married his sweetheart soon after returning home. He and his wife, Sandy, have 7 children, 21 grandchildren, and counting. He has served in mostly teaching capacities in his Church callings, but also as a bishop and on three Stake High Councils. He was a committee member for the Church curriculum that has grown to become the “Come Follow Me.” material. He is currently as of June, 2022 as a Mission President in Laredo, Texas.
JSH 1:34 “He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants; 35 Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted “seers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.”
JSH 1:75* “Oliver Cowdery describes these events thus: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.’”
Where’s the Breastplate?
In my opinion it is not possible that Joseph used a stone in a hat to translate, as the scriptures tell us he clearly used the two stones fastened to a breastplate above. The question I ask you is, where was the BREASTPLATE during Joseph’s translation and how would he keep his promise to not show the plates, the breastplate nor the spectacles to anyone as stated here:? “Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he had spoken—for the time that they should be obtained was not yet fulfilled—I should not show them to any person;neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if I did, I should be destroyed”. JSH 1:42.Lucy Mack Smith said, “That of which I spoke, which Joseph termed a key, was indeed nothing more nor less than a Urim and Thummim by which the angel manifested those things to him that were shown him in, vision; by which also he could at any time ascertain the approach of danger, either to himself or the record, and for this cause he kept these things constantly about his person.” Lucy Mack Smith.
Because of the commandment of the Lord to not show the plates, spectacles or breastplate to anyone, I believe in this painting by Ann Marie Oborn that I commissioned, may be how Joseph kept that directive: During translation I propose Joseph used a farmer’s hat that he probably wore daily to work on the farm. (picture right). A young boy would most likely only use a stove pipe hat for a dance or for proper attire, but his working hat would be with him almost constantly you would think. This hat I believe was not used with a stone in it, but as a tool or prop to hide the two stones in a bow or the spectacles from the view of the scribe, as you see in the picture below. The hat is nothing more than a prop to block out Emma’s vision. Joseph could also keep his promise to not show the breastplate (under his shirt. More discussed below),or the spectacles hidden from view by the hat but not in the hat; and the plates lay partially covered so Emma could not see them from her angle of view. See Photograph from Emma’s point of view below:
As Emma is writing, she cannot see the plates, spectacles nor the breastplate which were, as Lucy Mack Smith said, “constantly upon his person.”Joseph’s view. As you can see Emma’s view of the plates, spectacles and breastplate [under Joseph’s shirt] would be hidden. (See actual painting below by Ann Marie Oborn, to see the entire setting with the rod connected to the spectacles.“Mother I Have Got the Key” 2nd Edition by Ann Marie ObornPicture Joseph’s Seer Stone LDS Church History Museum SLC, UT
Curtain Not Used
By Elder Neal A. Maxwell Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles “With regard to the physical circumstances of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his scribe, Martin Harris was quoted as saying there was a blanket or curtain hung between himself and Joseph during the translation process. If Martin is accurately quoted, perhaps this occurred when the Prophet was copying characters directly from the plates in the sample to be taken to Professor Charles Anthon, since the dates mentioned are several months before Martin Harris’s brief scribal duties began.I say this because although David Whitmer mentions a blanket being used—it was only to partition off the living area in order to keep both the translator and scribe from the eyes of visitors. (see David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness, ed. Lyndon W. Cook, [1991], 173).
Elder Maxwell continues, “In fact, Elizabeth Anne Whitmer Cowdery, Oliver’s wife, said, “Joseph never had a curtaindrawn between him and his scribe” (quoted in John W. Welch and Tim Rathbone, “The Translation of the Book of Mormon: Basic Historical Information,” F.A.R.M.S. report WRR–86, p. 25). Emma likewise said of her days as scribe, early on, that Joseph dictated “hour after hour with nothing between us” (“Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” 289). Of course, the real revelatory process involved Joseph’s mind and faith, which could not be seen by others in any case.” By the Gift and Power of God Neal A. Maxwell 1997 Ensign.
A Demonstration? Use Made of a Blanket?
“In order to give privacy to the proceeding a blanket, which served as a portière, was stretched across the family living room to shelter the translators and the plates from the eyes of any who might call at the house while the work was in progress. This, Mr. Whitmer says, was the only use made of the blanket, and it was not for the purpose of concealing the plates or the translator from the eyes of the amanuensis. In fact, Smith was at no time hidden from his collaborators, and the translation was performed in the presence of not only the persons mentioned, but of the entire Whitmer household[?] and several of Smith’s relatives besides.” David Whitmer, as interviewed by the Chicago Tribune (1885). “The Book of Mormon,” Chicago Tribune, December 17, 1885 (Color and Parenthesis added)
This next information goes along with what Elder Maxwell quoted above in blue text about a blanket that David Whitmer mentioned. In regards to the above quote, my good friend and associate Jonathan Neville believes it is possible [?] that Joseph Smith showed many of the Whitmer’s a demonstration of the stone in the hat. It is a very interesting idea, but I don’t think it is correct. In my opinion I have a question about Joseph showing a demonstration to appease others curiosity and I don’t think that was necessary. I don’t think Joseph was obligated to show anyone a sneak preview so to speak. As you read my idea about the breastplate under Joseph’s shirt below, and the spectacles hidden with the hat as a prop only, I think it is a better possibility.It seems possible that some may have seen Joseph with his head in a hat, but they never saw what was in the hat.They were just guessing. As usual, you all can decide for yourself, and you can also contribute and share with Jonathan or myself what you feel happened. None of us know for sure.
Jonathan and I are in total agreement otherwise, as Jonathan said, “The story that doesn’t work is the currently popular narrativethat Joseph Smith never translated anything, that he merely read words off a stone in a hat (and it doesn’t matter whether that was a “peep stone” he found in a well or the spectacles, if he didn’t even use the plates), and Joseph and Oliver misled people by claiming he translated the engravings on the plates by means of the Nephite interpreters.” Jonathan Neville (bold and color added)
In speaking about the demonstration, Jonathan says, “He [Joseph Smith] realized he could just do a demonstration of the process by just reciting Isaiah from memory. So he went downstairs, put the stone in the hat, recited Isaiah, and the three scribes wrote it as fast as they could to keep up… On this one occasion, the demonstration, he was dictating so fast that he had three scribes and they were getting tired and had to take turns, which is not the normal manner of translation. That’s why I propose, anyway, that he was reciting from memory looking at the stone in the hat.” Jonathan Neville, A Man that can Translate
Why I don’t Believe the Demonstration Idea
Joseph wouldn’t allow the perception that his demonstration was the actual translation being shown if it wasn’t. It seems deceiving.
As Joseph was told to not show the plates, or the breastplate or the spectacles, none of those who participated in the demonstration saw any of that. Maybe they saw the rock and the hat, but why would Joseph want them to see a rock in a hat?
I don’t necessarily believe the David Whitmer quote from the Chicago Tribune above, that a blanket covered the front of the first story room so others could not see if they came to the door. Just how long did this demonstration last? Wouldn’t the blanket make neighbors even more curious as to what was going on?
The Chicago quote says that each time they would open with a prayer. How many times did they do the demonstration and how much time did the Whitmer’s loose on their farm work? Did the demonstration go on for a few days or a few weeks?
Why would Joseph recite Isaiah from memory as Jonathan says, and have Whitmer’s and others write it down during the demonstration, as Joseph supposedly read the stone in a hat with his memorized lines of Isaiah?
Why would Joseph have unauthorized scribes to actually write down some of Isaiah that Joseph had memorized, or even let the scribes know that some of Isaiah’s words were contained in the Book of Mormon?
Why would Joseph have to show the demonstration and have it include sacred writings that the others could hear?
The demonstration says nothing about the breastplate. Where was it and didn’t Joseph need it to translate every time?
Jonathan doesn’t mention how the breastplate was used with the spectacles, but I feel the two items had to be used together as many scriptures speak to that method.
Martin Harris Needed a Curtain?
I believe Martin Harris was very superstitious, nervous and scared of consequences. The way he acted would seem to me that he made Joseph put a curtain between them as Martin wanted no chance of himself accidently seeing the plates, breastplate or spectacles. Martin seemed he was afraid that he may meet his utter destruction as the Lord warned Joseph. “Harris declares, that when he acted as amanuensis, and wrote the translation, as Smith dictated, such was his fear of the Divine displeasure that a screen (sheet) was suspended between the prophet and himself. “Gold Bible, No. 6.” The Reflector (Palmyra, New York) 2, no. 16 (19 March 1831): 126–27.
[Martin Harris] says “he wrote a considerable part of the book, as Smith dictated, and at one time the presence of the Lord was so great, that a screen was hung up between him and the Prophet; at other times the Prophet would sit in a different room, or up stairs, while the Lord was communicating to him the contents of the plates. He does not pretend that he ever saw the wonderful plates but once, although he and Smith were engaged for months in deciphering their contents.” Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834) Based on reports by Doctor Philastus Hurlbut. Eber D. Howe (non-eyewitness), paraphrasing Martin Harris (eyewitness) in Mormonism Unvailed.
Many people listened to Martin Harris who had never seen the translation and wrote articles about Martin who said there was a curtain. But how could Martin ever know what was going on with the actual translation? Most of those people who quoted Martin were from Newspapers, or Apostates, and Authors and other people who seemed to have an animus towards the Prophet. The book Mormonism Unvailed was printed in 1834 and had all kinds of scandalous things about Joseph and he was even said to be a part of the occult. These ideas permeated the entire area near where Joseph lived. I doubt highly the words of Martin Harris and David Whitmer about the rock in the hat story and I only feel at times a curtain was used only with Martin Harris. Since Martin did not translate again after the lost 116 pages a curtain would never be used anyway, as Emma and Ann Cowdery said above.
Joseph Had Several Stones
In my opinion this may very well be the answer to Emma’s quote below about her statement, that the stone was in Joseph’s hat. Most people by now knew Joseph had a seer stone or two, but no one said they saw Joseph use it to translate, they probably just assumed he used it, as they knew he had one. Here is some information from BYU Religious Studies Center, 2016about Joseph apparently having several seer stones. In this book titled, Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones the authors say, “This connection between Native Americans and Joseph Smith’s religious endeavors extended to his brown and white seer stones. William Stafford claimed that someone might find a stone in brass kettles or certain kinds of pots buried in the mounds, insisting that seer stones were being recovered that had a Native American origin. These artifacts were very clearly man-made items, and if a seer stone was found within a kettle, then it must have had some value or purpose as evidenced by the belief that the hands of those who made the kettle must have placed the stone inside. Brigham Young likely had these Native American kettles in mind when he stated that “[Joseph] got [the seer stone] in an Iron kettle 15 feet under ground.” Wayne Sentinel, 27 December 1825 Apparently, the idea of Joseph Smith’s seer stones being anciently deposited by Native Americans became a natural assumption for some and suggested a similar origin for the Nephite interpreters. According to Joseph’s narrative, the Nephite interpreters originated with the ancient American inhabitants, as the ancient prophet Moroni *supposedly placed them in the ground for Joseph to find. At least one of the other two seer stones also shows signs of being prepared anciently…
[*Editors Note: I don’t agree with the book using the term supposedly, as it is very well understood that Moroni placed the artifacts in the Hill Cumorah, the same ones the Brother of Jared gave to him. Moroni said in Ether 4:5, “Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me to write them; and I have written them. And he commanded me that I should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal up the interpretation thereof; wherefore I have sealed up the interpreters, according to the commandment of the Lord.].”
Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones continues, “Before the Book of Mormon provided the narrative, Joseph Smith’s brown and white stones were artifacts of an ancient past and an expression of his religious devotion in the nineteenth century. Before 1827, the meaning of the brown and white seer stones was less defined, but there is no indication that they were viewed as irreligious artifacts…” Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones/ Michael Hubbard MacKay and Nicholas J. Frederick. BYU Religious Studies Center, 2016. Chapter Title: Seer Stones: Ancient Roots and Religious Significance Remember, Emma is never quoted as seeing the single stone in Joseph’s hat, just that she assumed the stone was in there. Remember also, Joseph did have several single seer stones one white and one brown [picture left], that he found in a well. I also add that this last testimony of Emma’s was written by Joseph Smith III who interviewed Emma Hale Smith shortly before her death which occurred on April 30, 1879 and the interview was published in the October 1, 1879 edition of The Saints Herald.
It was published 5 months after her death, so she did not have the opportunity to review the published statement as correct. Joseph Smith III did say he read Emma’s testimony back to her, and he said that she said it was correct, but we have no way of proving that. Emma said, “I know Mormonism to be the truth; and believe the Church to have been established by divine direction. I have complete faith in it. In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.” Last Testimony of Sister Emma Saint’s Herald, Vol. 26, No 19. p. 289. (1 October 1879) Remember the picture above that shows Emma’s view as Joseph translates. Joseph was told not to show the items to anyone, so the farmers hat in front of the spectacles to block out Emma’s view makes a lot of sense to me. Perhaps this is why the scholars and other BYU Historians claim the stone was “in the hat.” It would be easy for someone to see Joseph translating while only seeing the view of the hat and Joseph looking into it. No one claimed to have seen the actual stone or the spectacles, but they only could see the hat. It would be easy to come to a conclusion that Joseph’s head was “buried in a hat” looking at something they called a seer stone, while never really seeing that Joseph was actually looking through the two stones fastened to a breastplate. These stones were not in the hat, but the hat was blocking their view in order for Joseph to keep his promise of never revealing the Interpreters to anyone. To understand the correct method of translation and the most accurate, we should depend on the many scriptures that tell us that Joseph translated with the use of the spectacles fastened to the breastplate. Nowhere in all the scriptures does it say that Joseph used a stone in a hat. Why repeat a theory when we have the scriptures as our guide? Download a list of 16 quotes, including 8 scriptures that validate this proper method of translation below.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://bookofmormonevidence.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Book-of-Mormon-Hard-Evidence-Proper-Translation.pdf” title=”Book of Mormon Hard Evidence Proper Translation”]
Shirt, Hat, and Linen
Yes, the Prophet of the Lord kept his promise not to show anyone these articles the best way he knew how with his shirt, the hat, and the linen; These perhaps became special articles of the translation and a special part of the” Gift and Power of God”. How marvelous are these spectacles. I quote from the Joseph Smith Papers of Lucy Mack Smith saying, “After breakfast [on the day he received the plates and the urim and thummim] Joseph [Smith] called me into the other room and he set his foot on the bed and leaned his head on his hand and says,… “it is ten times better then I expected.” Then he went on to tell the length and width and thickness of the plates, and said he, “they appear to be gold.” But he seemed to think more of the glasses or the urim and thummim than he did of the plates, for, says he, “I can see anything; they are marvelous.“ (“Joseph Knight’s Recollection of Early Mormon History,” BYU Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1; spelling modernized by Lucy Mack Smith. The glasses were “marvelous”, not a stone. Repeatedly we hear glasses and spectacles which could never be a single stone.
Mother I have got the Key 1st Edition
Lucy also said, “That of which I spoke, which Joseph termed a key, was indeed nothing more nor less than a Urim and Thummim by which the angel manifested those things to him that were shown him in vision; by which also he could at any timeascertain the approach of danger, either to himself or the record, and for this cause he kept these things constantly about his person.” (History of Joseph Smith, Revised and Enhanced, p. 139, 145) I know in my heart, the title of the first art I had painted is, “Mother”, I have got the Key” as Lucy is quoted above. This Key; (Spectacles) unlocked the Heart (Breastplate), so to speak, acting as a Key unlocking Joseph’s mind and heart so he by the “Gift and Power of God” could translate this special book. How I love the Book of Mormon, another witness of Jesus Christ.
The words of Joseph Fielding Smith below are very powerful and reflect my feelings about the way Joseph Smith exercised the “Gift and Power of the Holy Ghost.”
Who Saw the Plates, Breastplate and Spectacles?
I believe there were only three people who actually saw all three items that Joseph found in Hill Cumorah. The gold plates, the breastplate, and the spectacles. They were Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery and Lucy Mack Smith. Lucy saw the spectacles and the breastplate under a linen as Joseph let her hold and feel them covered, as recorded in Lucy’s own history I share with you below, published in 1845.
The “Key” that Joseph kept Constantly about his Person
Joseph Smith said, “Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted “seers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.” JSH 1:35Oliver said, “I wrote with my own pen, the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages) as it fell from the lips of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as he translated it by the gift and power of God, by means of the Urim and Thummim, or, as it is called by the book, “holy interpreters.” October 21, 1848, Oliver Cowdery Speaking at a Conference at Kanesville High Council According to his mother, Joseph Smith kept the “Key” ‘constantly about his person’. According to Lucy Mack Smith, The “Key“ is the two stones, (that came from the Brother of Jared (Ether 3:22-24) in silver bows, fastened to the breastplate that were found by Joseph in the stone box with the plates at Hill Cumorah. I believe the witness of Lucy Mack Smith and the scripture in JSH 1:35, more than I believe Martin Harris, David Whitmer, or Emma Smith in their statements about a stone in a hat. They never saw the items used for translation as Oliver & Joseph did. Most people knew Joseph had a stone or two, but there is no record of anyone firsthand who saw Joseph use his stone to translate. There is no scripture that mentions a stone in a hat for translation. I believe the scriptures. JSH 1: 35, 52, 62, 75* Mosiah 28: 13, 20 Ether 3: 22-23; 4:5 Alma 37:21, 24-25.
Lucy’s Own Words
“Early in the morning of September 23, 1837, Joseph returned home from Hill Cumorah after retrieving the plates, spectacles, and breastplate. As Joseph entered the house, Lucy Mack Smith said, “I trembled so much with fear lest all might be lost again by some small failure in keeping the commandments, that I was under the necessity of leaving the room to conceal my feelings. Joseph saw this and followed me. Mother, said he. Do not be uneasy. All is right. See here, said he, I have got the key. I knew not what he meant, but took the article in my hands and, examining it with no covering but a silk handkerchief, found that it consisted of two smooth three-cornered diamonds set in glass, and the glasses were set in silver bows connected with each other in much the same way that old-fashioned spectacles are made. [See Picture Below].
Lucy’s DescriptionAnother possible version of the Spectacles
He took them again and left me but did not tell me anything of the record…. That of which I spoke, which Joseph termed a key, was indeed nothing more nor less than a Urim and Thummim by which the angel manifested those things to him that were shown him in vision; by which also he could at any time ascertain the approach of danger, either to himself or the record, and for this cause, he kept these things constantly about his person.” (History of Joseph Smith, p. 139, 145 (JSP- Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845; ) “After bringing home the plates, Joseph now commenced work with his father on the farm in order to be as near as possible the treasure that was committed to his care. Soon after this, he came in from work one afternoon, and after remaining a short time, he put on his great coat and left the house. I was engaged at the time in an upper room in preparing some oil cloths for painting. When he returned, he requested me to come downstairs. I told him that I could not leave my work just then, yet upon his urgent request, I finally concluded to go down and see what he wanted, upon which he handed me the breastplate spoken of in his history. It was wrapped in a thin muslin handkerchief, so thin that I could see the glistening metal and ascertain its proportions without any difficulty.It was concave on one side and convex on the other and extended from the neck downwards as far as the center of the stomach of a man of extraordinary size. It had four straps of the same material for the purpose of fastening it to the breast, two of which ran back to go over the shoulders, and the other two were designed to fasten to the hips. They were just the width of two of my fingers (for I measured them), and they had holes in the end of them to be convenient in fastening. The whole plate was worth at least five hundred dollars. After I had examined it, Joseph placed it in the chest [See Below] with the Urim and Thummim.” Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845
Picture of the Original Alvin’s Desk that Joseph used to store three things. The Plates, the Breastplate and the Spectacles.
“I have myself seen and handled the golden plates; they are about eight inches long, and six wide; some of them are sealed together and are not to be opened, and some of them are loose. They are all connected by a ring which passes through a hole at the end of each plate and are covered with letters beautifully engraved. I have seen and felt also the Urim and Thummim. They resemble two large bright diamonds set in a bow like a pair of spectacles. My son puts these over his eyes when he reads unknown languages, and they enable him to interpret them in English. I have likewise carried in my hands the sacred breastplate. It is composed of pure gold and is made to fit the breast very exactly.” Lucy Mack Smith (in Henry Caswall, The City of the Mormons; or, Three Days at Nauvoo, in 1842, 2nd ed. revised and enlarged, (London: J. G. F. & J. Rivington, 1843), 26) Books and Art at bookofmormonevidence.org/bookstore.
An Account from William Smith:
Storage of the Spectacles in a pocket on the back of the breastplate.
“Among other things we inquired minutely about the Urim and Thummim and the breastplate. We asked him what was meant by the expression “two rims of a bow,” which held the former. He said a double silver bow was twisted into the shape of the figure eight, and the two stones were placed literally between the two rims of a bow. At one end was attached a rod which was connected with the outer edge of the right shoulder of the breast-plate. By pressing the head a little forward, the rod held the Urim and Thummim before the eyes much like a pair of spectacles. A pocket was prepared in the breastplate on the left side, immediately over the heart. When not in use the Urim and Thummim was placed in this pocket, the rod being of just the right length to allow it to be so deposited. This instrument could, however, be detached from the breastplate and his brother said Joseph often wore it detached when away from home, but always used it in connection with the breastplate when receiving official communications, and usually so when translating as it permitted him to have both hands free to hold the plates.” (J. W. Peterson in The Rod of Iron I:3 (February 1924), 6—7.)
Evidence Joseph had the Breastplate and Spectacles Upon his Person
From the Joseph Smith Papers website we read, “We went to Emma Joseph’s wife and asked her if she knew ought of the record whether Joseph had taken them out or where they were. She said she did not know. He then related what he had seen and heard. Emma said she did not know what to do, but she thought Joseph was to have the record… He sent William for the horse who brought him up with a large hickory withe around his neck as it was necessary according to law to put a withe round the neck of a stray horse before turning him into an inclosure— And Emma was soon on her way to her husband. He was in the well when she arrived but having a sudden impression of to get out of the well he came up and met her. When she found him, she informed of the situation of affairs at home and he went immediately inform to Mrs. Wells and told her that he must return home to attend to some important business. She was not willing for him to leave but upon his promising to come back when he was at liberty again she consented and sent a boy to bring him a horse, which he mounted in his linen frock, with his wife by his side with her horse in decorated as before with a green hickory withe on his neck. And thus they rode through the village of Palmira. When he came he met his father a mile from the house pacing back and forth in great anxiety of mind. Father said there is no danger all is perfectly safe there is no cause of alarm when he had refreshed himself a little he sent Carlos my younger son to his brother Hyrum and told him to ask Hyrum to come up as he wished to see him. [paper fragment inserted after page [10] of book 5].
Joseph kept the urim and thumim constantly about his person an[d] he could by this means ascertain at any moment whether <if> the plates were in danger or having just looked into them before Emma got therehe perceived her coming and came up out of the well and met her.When she informed him of the situ what had occurred he told her that the record was perfectly safefor the present. But he <however> concluded to go home with her and told Wells that his business at home made it necessary for him to return.” [I have altered some words and deleted a few others and added periods and commas to help make it more readable. For details and an exact copy of this incident visit the link here:]https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/61#full-transcript “Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, Page [8], bk. 5,” p. [10], bk 5, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed June 10, 2022, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/64.
This quote from Lucy Mack Smith makes it very clear to me of the following. While Joseph dug a well in Macedon, he was wearing the breastplate and spectacles. As Lucy said before, “is made to fit the breast very exactly” Lucy also said about the breastplate and spectacles “he kept these things constantly about his person.” With the storage compartment on the back of the breastplate, as William Smith said, it would be very easy for Joseph to quickly attach the rod to the breastplate he was wearing under his shirt and quickly see that not only was Emma approaching him, but that the plates were safe. This quote said nothing about a stone being put into a hat so Joseph could ascertain danger or to see Emma coming. The quote does not even mention a hat or a seer stone. My conclusion is, Joseph wore the breastplate with the spectacles in the pocket on back and as Lucy says twice, had them “constantly on his person.”
Other Uses of the Urim and Thummim
“In this respect the testimony of Lorenzo Brown about the preparation the Prophet made for his translation of the Bible may be instructive. He records the Prophet as saying: “After I got through translating the Book of Mormon, I took up the Bible to read with the Urim and Thummim. I read the first chapter of Genesis and I saw the things as they were done. I turned over the next and the next, and the whole passed before me like a grand panorama; and so on chapter after chapter until I read the whole of it. I saw it all!” (as cited in Matthews, Plainer Translation, 25).” The Process of Translating the Book of Mormon Joseph Fielding McConkie (Professor of Ancient Scripture, BYU) Craig J. Ostler (Assistant Professor of Church History and Doctrine, BYU) “Not only did Joseph Smith use the Urim and Thummim to translate the Book of Mormon, but he also used it to receive revelation from God. Specifically, Doctrine and Covenants sections 3, 6, 11, and 14, 15,16, were all given through the Urim and Thummim. (See headings to these sections) We learn from the Doctrine and Covenants that “the place where God resides is a great Urim and Thummim.” In addition, “this earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon.” And each person who receives the white stone mentioned in Revelation 2:17 will be able to use the Urim and Thummim (D&C 130:8–10).” by Jay A. Parry and Larry E. Morris, adapted from “The Mormon Book of Lists” | Jan. 18, 2019 LDS Living
Conclusion- Joseph Fielding Smith
“Joseph Smith received the same Urim and Thummim had by the Brother of Jared for it was the one expressly provided for the translation of the Jaredite and Nephite records.(D&C 10: 1; 17:1; Ether 3:22- 28.) It was separate and distinct from the one had by Abraham and the one had by the priests in Israel. The Prophet also had a seer stone which was separate and distinct from the Urim and Thummim, and which (speaking loosely) has been called by some a Urim and Thummim.” Mormon Doctrine page 576 under title Urim and Thummim and (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, pp. 222-226. Italics added) Moroni said, “And now he [Mosiah] translated them by the means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow. Now these things were prepared from the beginning, and were handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages; And they have been kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord, that he should discover to every creature who should possess the land the iniquities and abominations of his people;” Mosiah 28:13-15 “The earliest mention of the Urim and Thummim is in connection with the brother of Jared. The Lord told him to keep a record of certain sacred things and to seal the record up. (We have that record in the book of Ether.) “And behold, these two stones will I give unto thee, and ye shall seal them up also with the things which ye shall write” (Ether 3:23). That same Urim and Thummim was used by Joseph Smith in translating the Book of Mormon.” LDS Living
Urim and Thummim Used by Brigham Young?
The Prophet Joseph Smith was not the only individual in this dispensation to use the Urim and Thummim and to receive revelations from God. Heber C. Kimball testified that Brigham Young also used these sacred instruments. Has Brother Brigham Young got the Urim and Thummim? Yes, he has everything that is necessary for him to receive the will and mind of God to this people. Do I know it? Yes, I know all about it. . . . (Heber C. Kimball, J.D. 2:111)
Using a Urim and Thummim is the special prerogative of a seer, and it would seem reasonable that such instruments were used from the time of Adam. However, the earliest mention is in connection with the brother of Jared (Ether 3:21–28). Abraham used a Urim and Thummim (Abr. 3:1–4), as did Aaron and the priests of Israel, and also the prophets among the Nephites (Omni 1:20–21; Mosiah 8:13–19; 21:26–28; 28:11–20; Ether 4:1–7). There is more than one Urim and Thummim, but we are informed that Joseph Smith had the one used by the brother of Jared (Ether 3:22–28; D&C 10:1; 17:1). (See Seer.) A partial description is given in JS—H 1:35. Joseph Smith used it in translating the Book of Mormon and in obtaining other revelations.
This earth in its celestial condition will be a Urim and Thummim, and many within that kingdom will have an additional Urim and Thummim (D&C 130:6–11).
SPOTTED BEEBALM, IS IT THE MEDICINAL PLANT SPOKEN OF IN ALMA 46:40? By Dr. Kevin P. Price
Special Zoom Meeting Monday, December 13, 2021, 8:00 PM Central Time Zoom link to join the presentation (limited to 100 logins) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2714958353
A Special Thanks To: Tina Koivu, Melissa Tillack, Dana Young and Paul DeBarthé (Forum Organizer)
This Monday night, December 13th at 8:00 pm Central Time, Dr. Kevin Price, Senior Geospatial and Plant Scientist will be presenting his findings on Monarda punctata var. villicaulis (Spotted Beebalm) that was found growing on the Zarahemla Temple Site across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo, Illinois (See D&C 125:3 if you want to know what the Lord named this area). The picture below shows the plant flourishing on the Zarahemla Temple Site across from the Nauvoo Temple.
The audience Dr. Price will be addressing is the Book of Mormon Perspectives Forum organized by Paul DeBarthé of Nauvoo. This group has a Mesoamerican Model following, but the group is diverse in its views concerning Book of Mormon geography. We want the Heartlanders to know about this presentation and hope as many as possible will join the meeting. They normally have about 40 people who log into the Zoom Conference. The forum can have up to 100 logins onto the conference at one time. The presentation will be recorded so if you cannot login, a recording will be available.
The talk by Kevin is for a general audience and will discuss the unique geographic and medicinal properties of the Spotted Beebalm. The plant’s natural geographic distribution is the Heartland of the US. It mostly follows the Mississippi River and its tributaries just as did the Hopewell. Preliminary findings show a linkage between the plant distribution and Hopewell communities throughout the Heartland. Many of those in the Heartland group believe the Hopewell people were those the Book of Mormon authors referred to as Nephites who were of Israelite decent. The talk will show a possible linkage of the Spotted Beebalm plant to an essential plant used by Israelites in their observance of the Law of Moses.
The medicinal values of the plant have long been recognized by Native Americans as outlined in a White Paper found at a link below. Results from gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry analyses show the plant has 56 compounds with several being used in today’s advanced medicines.
Published scientific articles in medical journals on some of the components and the whole essential oil of this plant show it to possess valuable antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal and antiphrastic properties. It is believed that this plant was used as a treatment for Malaria to cure this devastating Heartland seasonal disease that caused high fevers just as described in Alma 46:40. It has also been used as an anti-inflammatory and analgesic (pain killer).
Have you ever wondered how the Nephites and Lamanites might have treated their battle wounds? This plant would have been invaluable as a tea, tincture, essential oil or poultice. The picture below shows Spotted beebalm essential oil (rust colored oil in picture right). The essential oil is floating on the watery hydrosol created during the distillation process.
A scientific publication by a group of Chinese scientists shows the whole essential oil of Spotted beebalm was an effective treatment against Streptococcus pyogenes which is an antibiotic resistant flesh-eating bacterium (an example of this terrible infection is shown in the horrific picture below). It is interesting that the Chinese are studying this plant, that is found only growing naturally in the Heartland of the US and they are studying it as a cure to this deadly flesh-eating disease. Is the next plague being prepared? Zachariah 14:12 – And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem [Israel]: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.
Heartland supporters have been planting this plant in their herbal gardens all over the US and Canada. Many believe that access to important medicines will be denied or not possible in the coming years. In the past year over 550,000 seeds have been sent out to Heartlanders who heard about this plant at conference talks and videos. The seeds are very small as seen in the picture further down in this blog.
There are 9 varieties of this species growing in the US. The variety (Monarda punctata var. villicaulis) found growing on the Zarahemla Temple site has been found to be the most medicinally potent, but all varieties have medicinal values. It grows in full sun, hot, dry places. Some ask Dr. Price if it will grow in their rock garden. In response, they are shown the following picture of it growing between bricks in Dr. Price’s south-facing patio in Kansas. During the hot part of the summer in the middle of the day it is likely that these bricks heat to over 120o Fahrenheit. It is likely that an ant carried the seed from a few feet away and planted it in this location.
We have been sending packets of seeds to those requesting them. We have been asking for donations to cover our costs of hand-collecting and distributing the seeds. We have suggested a donation of $11 per packet of seeds which contains at least 25 seeds. The seeds are small as shown in the picture below left, of 100 seeds next to a ruler incremented in inches.
If you wish to receive a packet of seeds from the Spotted Beebalm grown on the Zarahemla Temple site, please call Wayne May’s office number and leave a return call number and he will call you back and get your information and Dr. Price will send you the seeds. Wayne’s office number is 715-962-1422 where you can leave a recorded message.
Since the medicinal values of the plant were brought to our attention, Dana Young, President of Be Young Total Health spent a year and 82 test trials to develop an essential oil blend he calls Zara thym. This blend magnifies the medicinal strength of the Spotted Beebalm essential oil by a factor of 3.
The goal is to make this essential oil blend available to as many as possible. Unfortunately, plants from the Zarahemla Temple site are limited and all the Zara thym essential oils made this year (over 700 bottles) were sold in a matter of hours, but there is a waiting list you can ask to be placed on so that you can get some as soon as it is available. The number to call to get on the waiting list is 1-435-580-4069. If you tell the office assistant that you wish to have a donation from your purchase given to the Heartland Research Group, a significant percentage of your purchase will be donated back to the Heartland Research Group. Please know that those involved in the Heartland Research Group volunteer all their time and considerable resources to this work, so your donations are not being used to enrich anyone in the group. They are used to cover costs.
Also know that Dana Young is a strong supporter of the Heartland Research Group and has said that he will donate between 15% and 28% (depending on the product) from the sale of any of his health products, (not just the Zara thym) to the Heartland Research Group. If you order online you can use the link below and the donations will be made to the Heartland Research Group.
Thank you for your support and we hope to hear from you. Dr. Price’s email address is opie1830@gmail.com. Please feel free to contact him with any questions you might have.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://bookofmormonevidence.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/00000-Spotted-Bee-Balm-White-Paper-FINAL.pdf” title=”00000 Spotted Bee Balm White Paper FINAL”]
Example Tours Only Below.
The information below is simply to give you an idea the places and cities visited that are normally on most tours. For actual tours see the tour information at the top of this page or visit the live website of Legacy Travel and Tours Here.
1- Follow the [potential] chronology of Book of Mormon history in ONE amazing tour!
Guided by Rod Meldrum
14 Day Tours Include:
13 night hotel accommodations
Deluxe motor-coach transportation
Museum entrance fees and guide
13 breakfasts, 3 lunches, and 3 dinners
Not Included:
Airfare To Tallahassee, FL and from Rochester, NY
Airline Baggage Fees
Tips For driver and guide
Meals Other Than Listed
Additional Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption Insurance
Fly into TALLAHASSEE FLORIDA – board motor coach and drive back 2,000 years in time through the pristine swamps and grasslands of St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge ending at the picturesque ST. MARK’S LIGHTHOUSE on the undisturbed coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. Experience the thrill of a gulf coast sunset at is may have looked when Lehi and his family arrived in this area nearly 600 years before Christ.
Day 2
LETCHWORTH-LOVE MOUNDS – KENNESAW
Leave our luxury accommodations in Tallahassee for LETCHWORTH-LOVE MOUNDS state archaeological Park to see the state of Florida’s tallest Native America ceremonial earthwork and talk about the Lamanite occupation of this land for centuries – We then travel to Macon, Georgia to visit OCMULGEE NATIONAL MONUMENT and museum with the only fully excavated mound that has been restored so that you can actually go inside the sacred ceremonial area that once stood there, and on past Atlanta to – KENNESAW Georgia.
Day 3
LEAKE MOUNDS – ETOWAH INDIAN MOUNDS – DOLLYWOOD
After enjoying a nice breakfast you’ll be whisked off for a quick stop at the Nephite time framed LEAKE MOUNDS Interpretive Trail followed by a visit to ETOWAH INDIAN MOUNDS Historic Site to see several the huge earth mounds adjacent to the Etowah River – We then follow a course along the southern side of the picturesque Appalachian Mountains to CHEROKEE, North Carolina to see the new display of the famous Bat Creek Stone which unearthed in 1889 in an official archaeological excavation and discovered to have ancient Hebrew characters inscribed upon it at the fabulous MUSEUM OF THE CHEROKEE INDIAN – You will then experience the majestic beauty of climbing over the GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK into PIGEON FORGE, singer, songwriter Dolly Parton’s hometown and often referred to today as “Dollywood.”
Day 4
KNOXVILLE – OLD STONE FORT – JACKSON
Leave Dollywood for the McClung Museum on the campus of the University of Tennessee in KNOXVILLE to learn about the Book of Mormon’s Land of Nephi connections – then we skirt along the northern Appalachian Mountains to Chattanooga, TN where we’ll climb to the top of Lookout Mountain, which overlooks portions of 7 southeastern states! OLD STONE FORT is an ancient ‘place of retreat’ surrounded by canyons and waterfalls that offered the ancient people protection using the cliff walls, earth embankments and sophisticated “place of entrance.” Then on to – NASHVILLE for a visit to the fabulous Tennessee State Museum which houses hundreds of beautiful artifacts of the ancient people and then driving on to – JACKSON, Tennessee for an amazing seafood buffet dinner and comfortable nights rest.
Day 5
PINSON MOUNDS – NEW MADRID
After breakfast you’ll visit PINSON MOUNDS State Park for a walk through the museum and a possible hike up massive Sauls Mound – then on to explore the mighty changes that occurred in this region at the time of Christ’s death through a visit to the NEW MADRID Historical Museum. Paducah is at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers. We think Mosiah came north on the Tennessee River to reach the land of Zarahemla. We get a chance to pass through the flood wall and its beautiful historical murals to the water’s edge and appreciate how massive these rivers are as we learn about the roles they played in Book of Mormon history. We stay the night in Paducah, KY.
Day 6
STONE FORT – CAHOKIA MOUNDS – HANNIBAL
This morning you’ll experience one site along a string of ancient fortifications at the southern tip of Illinois, in Giant City State Park called simply STONE FORT – Following our short hike to the overlook we’ll relax on the coach while we make our way to the largest earth structure in the world, the massive Monks Mound who’s 17 acre base rises to an impressive 100 feet in height at CAHOKIA MOUNDS State Historic Site – just east of St. Louis. From there we travel to Mark Twain’s boyhood hometown of HANNIBAL, Missouri.
Day 7
LITTLE MOUND CEMETERY – ZARAHEMLA – NAUVOO
After a quick ride down Hannibal’s Main Street, our group will head north with our first stop first at LITTLE MOUND CEMETERY, an ancient burial mound just outside of Keokuk, Iowa and then on for a visit to – ZARAHEMLA named that by the Lord in D&C 125:3. We’ll discuss why the Des Moines rapids made this site one of the most strategically important locations in all of North America and view the Mississippi River from high above as we cross the Fort Madison Bridge and enter – historic NAUVOO. We will have bus tour of Old Nauvoo to acquaint you with the many sites you can visit during your free time the following day. We will enjoy a special fireside presentation that evening.
Day 8
NAUVOO TEMPLE – OLD NAUVOO – TRAIL OF HOPE
For those who would like, arrangements have been made to attend a session at the beautifully restored and historic NAUVOO TEMPLE* in the morning, followed by an afternoon of fun exploring – OLD NAUVOO, and all the wonderful sights and sounds of ‘Joseph’s City’ complete with a walk down the Trail of Hope and visit to the Smith Family Cemetery which includes Joseph, Hyrum, Emma, Lucy Mack and Joseph Senior along with a surprising ancient secret about this sacred location.
Day 9
CARTHAGE JAIL – ZELPH’S MOUND – SPRINGFIELD –
As we say goodbye to old Nauvoo, our thoughts will turn to Joseph’s life – and death – as we visit CARTHAGE JAIL and discuss the life of the founding prophet of this dispensation – then we’ll explore the hidden trail to ZELPH’S MOUND where Joseph received the vision of this ancient Book of Mormon warrior who was killed and buried there following one of the final battles between the Nephites and Lamanites – then on to President Abraham Lincoln’s hometown of SPRINGFIELD, Illinois – finishing our day in CHAMPAIGNE.
Day 10
MIAMISBURG MOUND – FORT ANCIENT
This morning the group will watch some important videos while we traverse the state of INDIANA – and climb to the top of the Jaredite time framed MIAMISBURG MOUND in Ohio – Not far distant is the hill top fortification called FORT ANCIENT State Memorial which houses not only one of the great museums of the Hopewell (Nephites) civilization, but also has a replica home and you may get the chance to try your warrior skills by learning how to “cast” an atl-atl spear like they did anciently!
Day 11
SERPENT MOUND – SEIP MOUND – MOUND CITY
Once we leave the hotel in Cincinnati, you’ll experience one of the world’s most mysterious places, the ancient SERPENT MOUND perched atop a sacred plateau – SEIP MOUND nestled in the bottom of the Paint Creek Valley and the a visit to – MOUND CITY, home of the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Chillicothe, then to see the region’s best Hopewell artifact exhibit at the – OHIO HISTORY CENTER in Columbus and finish the day with a special evening meeting at our comfortable hotel in NEWARK, Ohio.
Day 12
GREAT OCTAGON – GREAT CIRCLE – HOLY STONES
Today you’ll experience what may be one of the most sacred locations in America, the GREAT OCTAGON and GREAT CIRCLE which are all that remains of an ancient 4 square mile ceremonial complex unrivaled in the world. It is believed that this could be the location of the temple mentioned in the Book of Mormon in the land Bountiful with all that implies. – Our next stop will be the Johnson Humrickhouse Museum which houses the incredible Newark HOLY STONES having Hebrew inscriptions following which we’ll visit other important sites in Church history, – the JOHN JOHNSON HOME, where Joseph and Emma lived, loved, received revelations and visitations and was tarred and feathered and then we’ll take some time taking in the beauties of the – KIRTLAND VISITORS CENTER there.
Day 13
KIRTLAND TEMPLE – SMITH FARM – GRANDIN PRESS
An autumn morning visit to the majestic KIRTLAND TEMPLE is awaiting you as we tour through this historic landmark and sing “The Spirit of God” where it was sung by the saints during the dedication of this, the first temple of this dispensation. As we head east we’ll stop along the shores of LAKE ERIE, one of the Great Lakes and then stop for a visit to the – SMITH FARM where Joseph Smith learned of his divine role as prophet and received the First Vision which ushered in the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ – You’ll be treated to a stop at the GRANDIN PRESS where the Book of Mormon was printed, enjoy dinner and view the ancient America exhibits in the Palmyra Inn, your hotel for the evening. The hotel is just up the street from the PALMYRA TEMPLE. We will visit the temple for pictures.
Day 14
HILL CUMORAH – ROCHESTER AIRPORT
This morning we will drive to the crest of the one and only HILL CUMORAH. The hill overlooking the final resting places of two entire civilizations that once inhabited this land and whose history is found in the Book of Mormon. From this hill wrote the prophet Moroni of the final destruction of his people and upon it did he deposit their sacred history, in a stone box atop this very hill. This cool autumn Sunday morning we’ll reflect upon this monumental history, its implications, its importance and its relevance in our lives. After you’ve had a chance to share your thoughts and feelings about these past two weeks, you’ll be transported to the – ROCHESTER AIRPORT for your flight home wherein you can continue to reflect on the experience you just had, the new friends you’ve made, and the profound impact this has had upon your testimony of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
All Itinerary items are subject to change without notice at the discretion of the tour company, its hosts and affiliates.
Legacy Tours and Travel, LLC reserves the right to alter the itinerary and/or substitute sightseeing and/or other tour features if deemed necessary.
2- Book of Mormon and Church History Tour [Potential] – Niagara Falls, Palmyra, Nauvoo, Independence, Zarahemla
14 Day Tour Includes
13 night hotel accomodations
deluxe motor-coach transportation
Museum entrance fees
13 breakfasts, 3 lunches, and 3 dinners
Not Included:
Round trip airfare to Columbus, OH
Airline baggage fees
Meals other than listed
Additional trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance
tips for driver and guide
ITINERARY
Day 1
FLY TO NEW YORK
Upon arriving in New York, you will be shuttled to our hotel in Buffalo. Once you arrive at the hotel you will be able to check into your room and enjoy a relaxing evening so that you can begin your adventure refreshed and ready to explore!
Day 2
NIAGARA FALLS – LAKE ONTARIO
Today we will tour the unforgettable Niagara Falls. We will ride the Maid of the Mist and experience the power and energy of this natural wonder. You will learn of the significance of this site to the Book of Mormon people. From Niagara we will travel to Rochester and check into our hotel. That evening we will enjoy a welcome dinner with guest introductions. After dinner we will travel to Lake Ontario, or “Sea East” as identified by Joseph Smith to see the sun set.
Day 3
HILL CUMORAH – GRANDIN PRESS – SMITH FARM – PALMYRA TEMPLE
We begin our tour on top of the Hill Cumorah, the site where the Book of Mormon ends and church history begins! We will then visit the Grandin Printing Press where the first copies of the Book of Mormon were printed. You will have the privilege to enter the same sacred grove where the boy Joseph witnessed the Father and the son, as well as visit the Smith farm and other sacred sites such as Alvin Smith’s grave site. We will stop at the Palmyra Temple for pictures, then return to the Hill Cumorah where you will have many different dinner options from a variety of food vendors before watching the Pageant that evening.
Day 4
PALMYRA – FAYETTE – KIRTLAND
We start the morning off travelling southbound to visit the Peter Whitmer farm where the church was officially organized April 6, 1830, stopping for lunch by Lake Erie. We will work our way south to Ohio and the Kirtland Temple, now owned by the Community of Christ. Our tour of the historic Kirtland Temple will include a visit to the museum and introductory movie of this sacred site. Next stop, the Church’s Visitors Center of Old Town Kirtland where guides will take you to the Newel K Whitney store, Sawmill and Johnson Historic hotel as part of our continuing educational experience. You will be privileged to sit in the actual room of the school of prophets and contemplate the events that occurred there above the Whitney store. We will be staying the night near Kirtland, Ohio.
Day 5
JOHNSON FARM – COSHOCTON – NEWARK
Today we will then wind our way south to the John Johnson Farm where Joseph was dragged from his bed to be cruelly tarred and feathered. Our next stop begins our Book of Mormon evidences portion where we will explore the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Coshocton, Ohio that houses the famous “Holy Stones” found in a Hopewell mound near Newark, Ohio inscribed with ancient Hebrew writings that demonstrates a North American connection to the old world. Next, we will visit the Great Circle in Newark, Ohio. This area is the most extensive monumental earthworks in the world built by the Hopewell Civilization and dating between 150 BC and 250 AD, during the peace following Christ’s visit. Scientists have recently discovered embedded astronomical alignments demonstrating a highly advanced civilization.
Day 6
ANCIENT OHIO SITES – MOUND CITY – SERPENT MOUND
Today we will see the Hopewell earthwork sites in Mound City and Seip Mound near Chillicothe, Ohio. We will visit an ancient hilltop fortress with defense earthworks similar to those described in the Book of Mormon. We will also see the famous effigy mound – Serpent Mound before driving to our hotel in Wilmington, OH.
Day 7
FORT ANCIENT – MIAMISBURG – SPRINGFIELD
Today we will visit Fort Ancient, another hill-top fortress with miles of embankments and trenches. Our final stop in Ohio is the pristine Miamisburg Adena culture mound. As we end the day, we will travel through the Indiana countryside to stay the night near Springfield, Illinois.
Day 8
ZELPH’S MOUND – CARTHAGE – NAUVOO
Today we will journey “over the plains of the Nephites” as Joseph wrote to his sweetheart Emma, while on Zion’s Camp march. One of the locations where Church History intersects with Book of Mormon history is Zelph’s Mound, perched high upon a bluff of the Illinois River. This sacred site is where Joseph Smith had a vision of righteous Lamanite warrior who died in the final struggles between the Nephites and Lamanites. After the short climb to the bluff of this unique site, we will travel to fateful Carthage Jail, where the lives of Joseph the prophet and his faithful brother Hyrum were taken by assassins. From there we travel on to Joseph’s city, Nauvoo.
Day 9
NAUVOO TEMPLE and PAGEANT – NAUVOO
The Nauvoo Temple stands majestically on a bluff, symbolically facing the west. For those who would like, we will have time to do a temple session in the morning. In the afternoon we will take a bus tour “back in time” to see Old Nauvoo, the Nauvoo Mansion, beautiful homes, blacksmith shop, Browning gun shop and more. In the evening you will have a chance to walk the Trail of Hope experienced by the saints as they bid farewell to Nauvoo. Looking across the river we will see Montrose, Iowa, the area indicated by the Lord to be called Zarahemla, in D&C 125:3. Following the Nauvoo Pageant performance we will spend the night in Nauvoo.
Day 10
ZARAHEMLA – HANNIBAL – CAHOKIA
Leaving Nauvoo, we will travel across the Mississippi River to Montrose, Iowa to see the Little Mound Cemetery. On our way to St. Louis we will stop in Hannibal, Missouri, hometown of Mark Twain. Next we will discover the largest city in North America before European settlement, Cahokia, just outside of St. Louis. The museum is world class but the magnitude of Monks Mound, the largest earthen temple mound structure in North America is awe inspiring. We will stay the night in Marion, MO.
Day 11
STONE FORT – NEW MADRID – WICKLIFFE
In the morning we will ride to Stone Fort, an ancient fortified hilltop with stone walls perched atop a bluff. Next we will drive to town of New Madrid, site of the largest earthquake sequence in North American historical time. The museum there will make this historic event come to life. We will drive south to the proposed Head of the River Sidon.
Day 12
Day 12 – in Independence, MO
Our tour bus will slowly travel down South Willis Street and temporarily gaze upon the home with house number 201. This is the former home of Louis E. Hills, the creator of M2C, The false Two Cumorah Theory currently being promoted by BookofMormonCentral, The Interpreter Foundation, and FairLatterdaySaints.
Please refrain from gawking as the current owners of 201 S. Willis likely have no clue of the historic significance of their home.
Later we will swing by The Stone Church near the Community of Christ Temple, where Louis E. Hills gave many lectures on his M2C. In this Church, built by Joseph Smith III, the oldest surviving son of Joseph Smith the Prophet, L.E. Hills gave many lectures both indoors and outdoors during the warm humid months of the year.
The Stone Church is currently used as a childcare center.
Louis E. Hills was hit by an automobile on one of these streets near his home in June 1925 and died a few days later in the Independence Sanitarium.
We will next visit his grave at the Mound Grove Cemetery in Independence, MO., which is likely an old Indian Mound, where L.E. Hills was interred on top of some dead yet still un-resurrected Nephites.
Thus, we will be able to gaze upon the home and grave of the very person who has prompted this tour in the first place. 😁😄
Day 13
FAR WEST – ADAM-ONDI-AHMAN – KANSAS CITY TEMPLE
Visiting Far West, with its temple cornerstones still in place, will help us continue to learn of the significance and parallelisms of this, the Lord’s Promised Land. We will explore the ancient past and the foretold future where they meet in the lush valley of Adam-Ondi-Ahman. On this sacred land the Prophet Joseph found the remains of an old “Nephite altar” near Tower Hill. Then we return to Kansas City we will drive by the new Kansas City Temple before our farewell dinner. We will stay the night in near Kansas City, MO.
Day 14
RETURN
As you fly home from Kansas City you will have some more time to contemplate the parallelisms and wonder of having just experienced the marvelous histories that have played out in the Heartland of the Lord’s Promised Land, the United States of America.
3- Flint Ridge, Ohio History Center, Miamisburg Mound, and Serpent Mound [Potential]
Guided by Rod Meldrum
4 Day Tour Includes:
3 night hotel accommodations
Deluxe motor-coach transportation
Museum entry fees
Expert guide
3 breakfasts, 1 lunch, and 1 dinner
Not Included:
Round trip airfare to Columbus, OH
Airline Baggage Fees
Tips For driver and guide
Meals Other Than Listed
Additional Trip Cancellation and
Trip Interruption Insurance ($248)
ITINERARY
Day 1
COLUMBUS AIRPORT, OHIO
Flights should arrive before 10:00 pm. After collecting your luggage, guests will be shuttled to the hotel near the airport where you will be staying the night, prior to beginning the tour the next morning.
Day 2
FLINT RIDGE – HOLY STONES – GREAT CIRCLE – GREAT OCTAGON
Flint Ridge is the site of over a thousand ancient flint mining pits made by the Hopewell (Nephite) civilization. We will then visit the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Coshocton, Ohio which houses a wonderful artifact collection, including metal head plates and breastplates as well as the famous “Holy Stones”, found in a Hopewell mound near Newark, Ohio in 1860. These stones, inscribed with ancient Hebrew writings, may connect North America with the Middle East. As we continue to Newark, you’ll discover that this area is filled with some of the most extensive and monumental earthworks in the world, including the Great Circle and Great Octagon, which may form a part of the largest temple complex on the planet, even today. They date between 150 AD and 250 AD, during the time of peace following Christ’s visit. Scientists have recently discovered embedded astronomical alignments demonstrating that this was a very highly advanced civilization. You’ll have a chance to walk among the massive ditches, 30 foot embankments and the ‘place of entrance’ of the Great Circle and see the observatory mound at the Great Octagon. You’ll learn more as we discuss the ancient Hopewell Mound Builder civilization that inhabited this area during Book of Mormon times. We’ll spend the night near Newark, Ohio. (B,D)
Day 3
OHIO HISTORY CENTER – MIAMISBURG MOUND – FORT ANCIENT
After a yummy hot breakfast, our first stop will be the Ohio History Center in Columbus where you’ll see firsthand the largest and most impressive archaeological collection of Hopewell artifacts, including the iconic mica ‘hand,’ effigy pipes and textile samples, along with more metal headplates and breastplates, even one covered with cultured pearls, just as the Book of Mormon described. Next we will roll west to see the massive Miamisburg Adena (Jaredite) Culture Mound. Our next site will be the fascinating Fort Ancient, a Hopewell fortification site with miles of embankments, reconstructed Nephite dwellings, a fabulous museum and evidence of the use of cement. You may also have the chance to throw an – Atl-Atl, a common Hopewell weapon! We’ll spend the night near Cincinnati, Ohio.
Day 4
SERPENT MOUND – SEIP MOUND – HOPEWELL CULTURE CENTER
Today we will explore the world famous Serpent Mound, a mysterious earthen effigy mound atop a peninsular bluff with massive coils forming astronomical alignments. We may also have time for a brief stop at Seip Mound before visiting the Hopewell Culture Archaeological Center at Mound City in Chillicothe, Ohio. This restored Hopewell site features displays of artifacts of copper, silver, and stone that may have been made by Book of Mormon people. We will then leave the Paint River Valley to return to the airport in Columbus, Ohio to catch your flight home and reflect on the many ‘discoveries’ you have made over the past 3 days!
Airfare To Airfare to Columbus, OH. and from St. Louis, MO.
Airline baggage fees
Tips For Coach Driver And guide
Meals Other Than Listed
Additional Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption Insurance
ITINERARY
Day 1
COLUMBUS, OHIO –
Flights should arrive before 10:00 pm. After collecting your luggage, guests will be shuttled to the hotel near the airport where you will be staying the night, prior to beginning the tour the next morning.
Day 2
SACRAMENT MEETING – COLUMBUS TEMPLE –
We begin our tour be attending sacrament meeting with the saints in the Columbus area. The chapel is located next to the beautiful Columbus Ohio Temple. After lunch we will visit the Ohio History Connection in Columbus, an wonderful museum with important Hopewell artifacts and displays. We return to our hotel in Columbus for dinner and overnight.
Day 3
HOPEWELL MOUNDS –
Our first stop will be to see Flint Ridge, from there we travel south to the the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Coshocton, Ohio. This museum houses the famous “Holy Stones”, found in a Hopewell mound near Newark, Ohio. These stones, inscribed with ancient Hebrew writings, demonstrate a North American connection to the Old World. As we continue toward Newark, you’ll discover that this area is filled with the most extensive and monumental earthworks in the world, including the Great Circle and Great Octagon, built by the Hopewell Civilization. They date between 150 AD and 250 AD, during the peaceful time following Christ’s visit. Scientists have recently discovered embedded astronomical alignments proving this was a highly advanced civilization. You’ll have a chance to ascend the 30 foot embankments and walk the ‘place of entrance’ of the Great Circle. You’ll learn more as we discuss the ancient Hopewell Mound Builder civilization that inhabited this area during Book of Mormon times. We’ll spend the night near Newark, Ohio.
Day 4
HOPEWELL MUSEUM – MOUND CITY – SERPENT MOUND –
After breakfast, our first stop will be the Hopewell Museum at Mound City in Chillicothe, Ohio. This restored Hopewell site features displays of artifacts of copper, silver, and stone that may have been made by Book of Mormon people. We continue through the Ohio River Valley, visiting ancient archaeological sites including Seip Mound, and Fort Hill, a Hopewell hilltop fortress with its ancient stones walls still visible. We’ll stop at an Amish Bakery to get lunch and other goodies for a picnic at Fort Hill. We’ll see the world famous Serpent Mound with its mysterious coils forming astronomical alignments. We’ll overnight near Cincinnati, Ohio.
Day 5
FORT ANCIENT – MIAMISBURG ADENA CULTURE MOUND –
Today we journey to Fort Ancient, another hilltop fortress with miles of embankments and trenches before exploring the Miamisburg Adena Culture Mound. Then we’ll have some quality discussion time about this ancient civilization that has over 25 correlations to the Book of Mormon, as we continue on toward Springfield, Illinois, where we will spend the night.
Day 6
ZELPH’S MOUND – ZARAHEMLA – DICKSON MOUNDS –
After breakfast you’ll continue your journey, “roving over the plains of the Nephites” as the Prophet Joseph wrote to his sweetheart Emma while on Zion’s Camp march in 1835. Our first stop, Zelph’s Mound, is perched high upon a bluff above the Illinois River. A short climb takes you to the site where Joseph Smith had a vision of a righteous Lamanite warrior named Zelph, who was buried in this mound after dying in the final struggle between the Nephites and Lamanites. From there you will travel to the Dickson Mounds Museum to see the impressive collection of Hopewell artifacts and displays. Then you’ll enjoy the afternoon in Nauvoo, majestic Temple, high on a bluff, symbolically facing the west. Across the Mississippi River you will have a wonderful view of Montrose, near the place the Prophet Joseph said was the site of Zarahemla, as indicated by the Lord in D&C 125:3.
Day 7
CAHOKIA – STONE FORT –
Today we’ll discover the largest city in North America before European settlement, Cahokia, just outside of St. Louis. The museum is world class but the magnitude of Monks Mound, the largest earthen temple mound structure in North America is awe inspiring. From there we’ll ride to Stone Fort, an ancient fortified hilltop with stone walls perched atop a bluff. We will be staying the night in Poplar Bluffs near Stone Fort.
Day 8
FORT DEFIANCE – WICKLIFFE MOUND – NEW MADRID –
Today we’ll drive to see the “Head of the River Sidon” at Fort Defiance State Park. Next we will visit Wickliffe Mounds before learning more about the destruction at the time of Christ’s death at New Madrid Earthquake Museum. We then return north to the St. Louis airport for departure. Flights can be scheduled after 4:00 pm.
The Smoking Gun of Book of Mormon Geography by Jonathan Neville
“Where did the idea that the Book of Mormon occurred in central America originate? What historical evidence from Joseph Smith exists to support the many Mesoamerica theories speculating about its geography? Where did the Book of Mormon history really take place and what did the Prophet, Joseph Smith, know about it, if anything? BYU law school graduate, former JAG attorney and author Jonathan Neville has conducted one of the most important, monumental and history clarifying research on these subjects. His research has culminated in one of the most important books on the Book of Mormon that has been written, a book that will finally lay to rest speculation about where to complete our search for the evidence of the reality of the Book of Mormon, a book that reveals new research that is destined to become… THE SMOKING GUN OF BOOK OF MORMON GEOGRAPHY… The book is called “The Lost City of Zarahemla” – Rod Meldrum
Purchase Today!
“Saturday, June 11, 1842, was unusually cold in Boston, Massachusetts. It snowed in the city that day, the latest snow in Boston history. Also on that day, the Dollar Weekly Bostonian published the first in a series of articles written under a false name–a pseudonym–that were part of a scheme to change LDS thinking about the Book of Mormon. The scheme would misdirect Book of Mormon research for 173 years.
By 1842 standards, it was a simple plan, but there were complications. The now virtually unknown perpetrator–who will become known as the “Smoking Gun” of Book of Mormon geography –was well known at the time. He had to work anonymously. He had to work from a great distance. And he needed an accomplice, someone very close to the Prophet Joseph Smith whom no one would suspect until it was too late.
To pull off this scheme, it had to be an inside job.
It was brilliantly executed. The seeds sown by the conspirators in 1842 took root and prospered. Even today, the fruit is visible inside thousands of LDS chapels around the world, in the pages of Church manuals and magazines, and in illustrations published inside the Book of Mormon itself. Millions of people–members, investigators, and critics–have formed opinions and mental images of the Book of Mormon based on the work of the Smoking Gun.
Try this experiment. With your mind’s eye, picture Samuel the Lamanite on the city walls, preaching to the Nephites.
Did you see a man standing on top of a massive stone wall, his red cape blowing in the wind? The sun setting behind him? A muscular archer aiming directly for his heart?
If that is what you pictured, you are experiencing the influence of this man… the Smoking Gun of Book of Mormon geography.
Arnold Friberg, who painted that image of Samuel the Lamanite and eleven other paintings in the famous series on Book of Mormon events, specifically set his paintings in Central America. His painting titled “Lehi and His People Arrive in the Promised Land” includes white birds flying around the ship. Friberg explained, “The birds are not seagulls, but rather swallow-tailed roseate terns, which are found in the tropical waters around Central America. Such details helped define the geographic location for this painting.” 1
Why did Friberg choose a Central American setting? Why do so many people–perhaps most members of the Church today–think Book of Mormon events took place in Mesoamerica?
It was the work of a small group of men, led by the Smoking Gun.
Early church members speculated that the Book of Mormon events took place across the Americas. The “narrow neck of land” had to be Panama, they guessed, while the Nephites lived in North America and the Lamanites in South America. Such a hemispheric model might have made sense in a day when people did not have accurate maps–let alone satellites–to reveal the distances and geography involved. But Joseph Smith made statements that, had they been more widely known, likely would have focused the Saints’ attention on a smaller geographic area.
Joseph Smith’s view
The Book of Mormon text mentions only one site–Cumorah–that relates to a modern location. Cumorah is where the last great battles were fought, and is also the place where Joseph Smith obtained the plates. Some people believe there is one Cumorah; others believe there are two, one in New York and another–the scene of the last battles–in Mesoamerica. This raises the question, how did Joseph Smith’s Cumorah end up in Mesoamerica?
After crossing Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois as part of Zion’s Camp in 1834, Joseph wrote a letter to his wife Emma. He described “wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls & their bones, as proof of its divine authenticity.” (See https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-emma-smith-4-june-1834/3
Where are the plains of the Nephites? The Book of Mormon describes several plains where events took place, including plains near the city of Mulek (Alma 52:20), the plains of Agosh (Ether 14:15), the plains of Heshlon (Ether 13:28), and the plains of Nephihah (Alma 62:18). Joseph could have been referring to any or all of these.
As recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord sent missionaries to the Indians living in New York, Ohio, and Missouri, specifically identifying them as Lamanites and telling them that He (the Lord) “would go with them and be in their midst.” (D&C 32:2) During this mission, Joseph Smith told tribes from Michigan that the Book of Mormon was the history of their ancestors. He wrote that the Book of Mormon is a record of “the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians.” 2
Joseph identified an old Nephite altar in what is known as Adam-ondi-Ahman. He had a vision on Zelph’s Mound of a fallen Lamanite who was killed during the last great struggle with the Lamanites and Nephites, and who served under the great prophet Onandagus, who was known from the Hill Cumorah or east sea to the Rocky Mountains. Cumorah and “east sea” are both locations named in the Book of Mormon text. The Book of Mormon explains that the last battles occurred between Zarahemla and Cumorah. Zelph’s Mound is located about 70 miles southeast of Nauvoo–between Zarahemla and Cumorah. (See here https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/489)
Mormon, “Carried by my Father to the Land Zarahemla” by Ken Corbett (Ohio River at Moundsville, WV)
Mormon claims that when he was eleven years old, he “was carried by my father into the land southward, even to the land of Zarahemla. The whole face of the land had become covered with buildings, and the people were as numerous almost, as it were the sand of the sea.” Mormon 1:6-7. One non-Mormon observer in the 1800s claimed that anciently, there were 5,000 cities at once full of people in eastern North America. Another reported over 3,000 tumuli, or mounds, along the Ohio River alone. Today there are 170,000 known
Enlarge
“Indian” archaeological sites in Illinois alone. Artifact collectors in Iowa, directly across the Mississippi from Nauvoo, have found tens of thousands of arrowheads in the vicinity. More wash up whenever the rivers flood.
D&C 125:3 named the area in Iowa across from Nauvoo as “Zarahemla” and that location fits the proposed ancient Zarahemla when an abstract internal map based on the Book of Mormon text is overlaid on North America.
Despite all these links to North America, Arnold Friberg, who “established for Latter-day Saints what Book of Mormon people, landscapes, and events might have looked like,” 3 picked Central America–as have most artists who depict Book of Mormon events.
Why Central America?
As listed above, prior to 1842, there was a consistent record of Joseph Smith locating Book of Mormon peoples in North America. What caused the shift to Central America?
The Times and Seasons–the equivalent of today’s Ensign–reprinted the Bostonian articles mentioned in the opening paragraph. These articles prepared readers for three additional articles published in the September 15th and October 1st issues of the Times and Seasons that specifically linked Book of Mormon cities to Mesoamerica.
The first Mesoamerica article claims “these wonderful ruins of Palenque [Mexico] are among the mighty works of the Nephites,” and “the Nephites… lived about the narrow neck of land, which now embraces Central America.” A second article reads new material into the Book of Mormon text: “When we read in the Book of Mormon that… Lehi… crossed over to this land and landed a little south of the Isthmus of Darien…” The third outright states that “The city of Zarahemla… stood upon this land [referring to Central America or Guatemala]… It is certainly a good thing for the excellency and veracity, of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, that the ruins of Zarahemla have been found where the Nephites left them.”
Joseph Smith was listed as the publisher and editor of the Times and Seasons when these articles were published. For that reason, even though the articles themselves are unsigned, many historians and scholars assumed that Joseph wrote, or edited–or at least approved of–these articles. No one knew for sure, but this assumption has become the prevailing view and is the underlying basis for the Mesoamerican theory.
Now, thanks to new Church history research, we know Joseph did NOT write these articles. The Smoking Gun of Book of Mormon geography is about to be revealed.
Smoking Gun(s)
The earliest case in the career of Sherlock Holmes (1880) was titled “The Adventure of the Gloria Scott.” In the story, a fake chaplain shot the captain of the ship–proven because “the chaplain stood with a smoking pistol in his hand”–the first “smoking gun.” Now the term “smoking gun” refers to a fact that provides conclusive evidence of a crime.
Writing the three “Mesoamerica” articles for the Times and Seasons was not a crime in the technical sense of the word. But the mystery about their authorship has endured for 173 years because the stakes involved are so high. What reader of the Book of Mormon has not wondered where the events took place? Millions of people–members, investigators, and critics, as well as the curious and studious–have read the Book of Mormon. Having an idea of the actual setting is important in order to understand the Book of Mormon people and their society–as well as to establish the historicity of the book. If Joseph Smith wrote the Mesoamerican articles, then those who sustain him as a Prophet generally feel compelled to accept the Mesoamerican setting. In fact, it was the presumption that Joseph wrote, or at least approved of, these articles that led Church members to formulate the limited geography of Mesoamerica as the setting for the Book of Mormon in the first place. LDS scholars have worked diligently to vindicate what they thought were Joseph’s teachings about Mesoamerica.
But if Joseph did not write these articles, then shouldn’t the other things he wrote about the North American setting take precedence?
This brings us back to the central question: is there solid evidence of authorship? Is there in fact, a smoking gun?
Modern proponents of the Mesoamerican theory have used stylometry–the statistical study of linguistic style, word usage, etc.–to demonstrate that Joseph Smith was the author. Stylometry can find a “smoking gun,” but only if the actual author is among the candidates tested.
Two stylometry studies by LDS scholars have purported to prove Joseph was the author (or co-author) of the Times and Seasons articles. However, both studies limited their examination to only three possible authors: Joseph Smith, Wilford Woodruff, and John Taylor. Of the three, Joseph’s writing style was closest to the actual author’s, but not by much. The Mesoamerican articles were linguistic outliers. The results of the study showed it was unlikely that any of the three candidates they tested were the actual author. In fact, these studies essentially proved Joseph could not have been the author. (That analysis is too detailed for this article, but it is included in the book, “The Lost City of Zarahemla,” which discusses the historical facts in depth.)
So what went wrong? How and why did these scholars reach what seemed to be an incorrect result?
The scholars who wrote these stylometry studies are also proponents of the Mesoamerican theory. Perhaps there was an element of confirmation bias; i.e., because they believe the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica, they believed Joseph was the author of these articles and when the results seemed to verify this, the analysis ended. But in fact, it was the articles in the Times and Seasons that led to the Mesoamerican theory in the first place! The stylometry studies did not solve the real mystery of who wrote the articles.
There are two key facts that have been overlooked regarding the authorship of the Mesoamerican articles. First, much of the material in the Times and Seasons consisted of reprints from other sources that were mailed to the newspaper. Some articles were even written under pseudonyms. Second, someone other than Joseph Smith was actually editing and publishing the Times and Seasons in August and September of 1842.
What no one noticed before now was a number of similarities between the Mesoamerican articles and the known writings of one Benjamin Winchester. Words, phrases, and concepts were common to both sets of documents–and unique to Winchester.
Winchester, in fact, was the Smoking Gun of Mesoamerican theory.
This realization led to further inquiry. Who exactly was Benjamin Winchester? Why did he write these articles? How did he get them published in the Times and Seasons? What did Joseph Smith think of them?
Benjamin Winchester
Although he is mostly forgotten now, Benjamin Winchester was well known in the early days of the Church. He had been the youngest adult (age 16) on Zion’s Camp in 1834. He had been ordained an Elder and a Seventy by the age of 20. He had been present when the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve were chosen and ordained. Along with them, he had received a blessing and a promise that he “shall push many people to Zion.” In fulfillment of that blessing, he became a zealous missionary–successful enough that the Times and Seasons published an account of his missionary work in its very first issue in 1839.
Winchester settled down in Philadelphia, where he became the Branch President Presiding Elder (equivalent to today’s Bishop). Frustrated with the anti-Mormon opposition and the inadequate success of the missionary work, he started his own newspaper, called The Gospel Reflector, to promulgate his ideas about Church doctrine and the Book of Mormon, he developed a “new course of argument” that he believed would persuade the world to read the Book of Mormon and join the Church. A thrilling book by John L. Stephens, titled Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, was riveting readers with descriptions of an expedition that uncovered mysterious, long-lost civilizations. Accompanied by detailed illustrations of exotic ruins, the book became a national best seller. Winchester had previously sought to popularize the Book of Mormon by linking it to other books about archaeology, but the Stephens book was more sensational.
John E. Page
John E. Page, an Apostle who visited Philadelphia and conducted missionary meetings with Winchester along with another Apostle, William Smith (the Prophet’s younger brother), liked Winchester’s ideas. He wrote a letter to Joseph Smith, explaining this “new course of argument” with great enthusiasm. He gave the letter to William to hand-deliver to his brother Joseph. Winchester traveled through New York on his way to Massachusetts. Shortly thereafter, a member of the Church in New York, Dr. John Bernhisel, bought a copy of the Stephens book and sent it to Joseph Smith in Nauvoo. Winchester abandoned his mission and hastily relocated to Nauvoo, where he secured a job at the Times and Seasons following the death of Don Carlos Smith, another of Joseph’s brothers. He managed to reprint many of his Gospel Reflector articles in the Times and Seasons but the Quorum of the Twelve suspended him before he could reprint his Mesoamerica promoting articles, which were first published in the Gospel Reflector back in March 1841.
Later in May of 1842, Brigham Young formally silenced Winchester, printing a notice in the Times and Seasons so Mormons everywhere would see it. But Winchester remained convinced that his new course of argument would dramatically improve missionary work. His overriding motivation was missionary zeal. He was well intentioned, but he disregarded the counsel of his leaders, a problem Joseph Smith himself explained several times to Winchester personally. Joseph once told John Taylor, “You can never make anything out of Benjamin Winchester if you take him out of the channel he wants to be in… he can write for thousands to read while he can preach to but few.” And Winchester did not want to be out of the channel of proving the Book of Mormon with archaeological evidence from Mesoamerica.
But how could Winchester accomplish his goal when he was living in Philadelphia, especially after the Quorum of the Twelve had suspended him from the Times and Seasons and publicly silenced him? Was someone in Nauvoo working with him? Did he have an accomplice?
The first paragraph of this article mentioned a pseudonymous article published in a Boston newspaper. There were actually four such articles written, two by an author using the fake name “Q” and two by another named “A Lover of Truth.” The articles purported to be written by non-Mormons who were inordinately impressed with the Mormon preachers in Boston–including the link between the Book of Mormon and archaeological discoveries. The Times and Seasons reprinted these articles in July, August and September 1842.
There was no explanation in Church history regarding the authorship of these articles, but there was something suspicious about them. Winchester had been present at the Boston meetings, but he was not mentioned in the articles. A closer look at the linguistic style of the articles revealed another smoking gun: clearly, Winchester was “Q.” Why would he write under a pseudonym?
The answer was easy. He had to.
Winchester was posing as a non-Mormon. Plus, he needed to avoid attention from Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, who had previously reprimanded him so many times.
But who was “A Lover of Truth?” The writing style excluded Winchester. A series of investigatory breakthroughs uncovered yet another smoking gun. A Lover of Truth was a friend of Winchester’s.
Still, it seemed improbable that Joseph Smith, John Taylor, or Wilford Woodruff would have published articles from pseudonymous authors. Such an author could have been an enemy of the church, writing falsehoods to fool the saints and then discredit the Times and Seasons. Someone had to know the true identity of “Q” and “A Lover of Truth,” but who?
William Smith
There was only one person in Nauvoo who knew their identity: William Smith, the brother of Joseph. William was the editor and publisher of The Wasp, another Nauvoo newspaper, but what did he have to do with the Times and Seasons? No account of Church history mentions William Smith in connection with the Times and Seasons. In fact, as the stylometry articles mentioned above showed, William was never even considered as having had anything to do with the Times and Seasons.
What everyone seemed to have forgotten is that William was publishing and editing The Wasp from the same printing shop using the same printing press as the Times as Seasons. In fact, there is abundant evidence that William was the acting editor of the Times and Seasons during August and September 1842. This is an astonishing discovery–yet another smoking gun–but it makes sense in the context of the other facts of this case. It was William who had hand-carried the letter from John E. Page to Joseph Smith that described the “new course of argument” Winchester developed. William had reprinted Winchester’s pseudonymous articles from the Bostonian. Therefore, it was William who published Winchester’s unsigned articles about Mesoamerica in the Times and Seasons.
But why would William participate in a scheme to link the Book of Mormon to Mesoamerica, especially if it contradicted Joseph’s own teachings? For one thing, William had a long history of confrontations with his brother Joseph. Shortly after Joseph’s assassination, William apostatized and became President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles under James Strang. In that position, he continued to promote the Mesoamerican theory of Book of Mormon geography.
So William Smith was Winchester’s Nauvoo insider and accomplice.
Joseph not only didn’t write the Mesoamerican articles, he didn’t edit, publish or even approve them. For several reasons (which are discussed in detail in the book), he couldn’t simply retract the articles. But he took action to mitigate their impact and prevent their recurrence. Within days of the unauthorized release of the three Mesoamerican articles in the fall of 1842, Joseph fired William from The Wasp, had Winchester removed as Branch President in Philadelphia, and resigned as Editor of the Times and Seasons himself.
The Legacy
The conspiracy fomented by Benjamin Winchester and William Smith is not merely an interesting and previously unknown aspect of Church history. George J. Adams, a close associate of Joseph’s, wrote that shortly before their martyrdom, “Joseph and Hyrum said that Winchester was rotten at heart, would apostatize, and injure the church as much as he could.” But as noted at the outset, Winchester has been largely forgotten. Few people other than serious students of Church history have ever heard of him. Has Joseph’s prophecy been fulfilled? Has Winchester injured the church?
The answer comes back to Winchester’s three Mesoamerican articles in the Times and Seasons. Certainly they have had a major influence on the Church through Mesoamerican Book of Mormon theories ever since.
For 173 years, faithful Mormons have been searching in Mesoamerica for evidences of the Book of Mormon. Scientific expeditions have been conducted. Books have been published, films produced, tours undertaken, and artwork and photos created and displayed, not only in chapels and temples but in the pages of the Book of Mormon itself. And yet, after all this time, energy and expense, not a single piece of evidence of the Book of Mormon civilizations has been discovered in Mesoamerica. At best, scholars find parallels and similarities. They’ve made an honest and sincere–but terribly costly–mistake.
All because of one Benjamin Winchester.
The Problem with Mesoamerica
The underlying premise of the Mesoamerican geography is that there are problems with the text as translated by Joseph Smith.
As an example, Mesoamerica has an east/west orientation. To the north is the Gulf of Mexico. To the south is the Pacific. However, the Book of Mormon speaks of the land northward and the land southward, not the land east and west. For Mesoamerica to qualify as the setting for the Book of Mormon, proponents must redefine the term “north” as used in the Book of Mormon (“Nephite north”), claiming it cannot be the same as the direction we call “north” today.
This has led one faithful LDS scholar to make the following statement:
“The Book of Mormon is the translation of a document from a culture with which Joseph Smith was not familiar. We have evidence that Joseph dictated ‘north.’ What we do not have evidence of is what the text on the plates said.” 4
This scholar doesn’t think Joseph’s translation is evidence of what was on the plates. It is difficult to conceive of an argument that undermines the Book of Mormon more than this. If Joseph couldn’t correctly or accurately translate a concept as basic as a cardinal direction, what basis is there for believing he could translate anything correctly or accurately? Joseph reviewed the Book of Mormon several times to make sure the translation was correct. If, as this quotation demonstrates, Mesoamerican proponents must cast doubt on the validity of Joseph’s translation to place the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica, the Mesoamerican theory sows confusion and misdirection.
Another prominent and faithful LDS scholar has defended his Mesoamerican geography in a series of books on the topic. Here are some of his conclusions.
“There remain Latter-day Saints who insist that the final destruction of the Nephites took place in New York, but any such idea is manifestly absurd. Hundreds of thousands of Nephites traipsing across the Mississippi Valley to New York, pursued (why?) by hundreds of thousands of Lamanites, is a scenario worthy only of a witless sci-fi movie, not of history.” 5
“Joseph Smith became convinced in the last years of his life that the lands of the Nephites were in Mesoamerica.” 6
“The prospect that any other part of America than Mesoamerica was the scene of Book of Mormon events is so slight that only this obvious candidate area will be considered here.” 7
Val Chadwick Bagley’s Book Here
This “sci-fi” take on Joseph’s comments during Zion’s camp may be understandable if one believes that Joseph wrote the Times and Seasons articles, but now that we know he did not, what justification can there be for ridiculing a North American setting? The second quotation expresses a common belief among Mesoamerican advocates that Joseph’s views changed over the years, but what evidence is there of that, apart from Winchester’s articles? Once we recognize that Winchester, the Smoking Gun of Book of Mormon geography research, wrote these articles and that William Smith published them, everything that Joseph wrote or taught is consistent with a North American setting for the Book of Mormon.
The third quotation from this scholar shows that he didn’t even consider a site outside of Mesoamerica, presumably because of the Winchester articles. Hopefully he, and those who have collaborated with him, will now recognize that the foundations for the Mesoamerican theories have collapsed, leaving behind nothing but swirling dust and the smoke curling out of the smoking gun that is Benjamin Winchester’s.
Why Zarahemla?
It has long been somewhat curious that the final Mesoamerican Times and Seasons article focused on Zarahemla. Why Zarahemla? Why didn’t Winchester write about the city of Bountiful, or the city of Nephi or some other Book of Mormon location?
More Maps Here
The site across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo had been named Zarahemla by the Lord in D&C 125:3. Some authors have stated, incorrectly, that the site was referred to as Zarahemla prior to this revelation, but the historical record shows this is not the case. The saints’ use of the term Zarahemla for the land across the river from Nauvoo followed the revelation.
The Times and Seasons published only one description of the development activity in Zarahemla, Iowa. The author stood by the temple and looked across the river, writing “The Temple also commands a fine view of Zarahemla, and the beautiful prairie that stretches along, at its wonted distance from the river for several miles. Several buildings are in progress in Zarahemla.”
As you may already have guessed, the author of that article was Benjamin Winchester.
Winchester first formulated his Mesoamerican theory in March 1841–the same month that, 850 miles away in Nauvoo, Joseph Smith had received the revelation now known as D&C 125. Was the Lord preparing Joseph for what Winchester would eventually propose? Was it Winchester’s missionary zeal that led him to link the Book of Mormon to a best-selling book about Mesoamerica? Did this theory of Winchester’s ultimately injure the Church as Joseph predicted?
Everyone can assess the evidence and decide, but in the end, best-selling books and public fascination do not have enduring value. Only the truth does.” Jonathan Neville
3 Book Combo 33% OFF Special – Mesomania, Moroni’s America & Letter VII by Jonathan Neville (Books) $26.95
Notes:
1- Vern G. Swanson, “The Book of Mormon Art of Arnold Friberg, ‘Painter of Scripture’” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 10/1 (Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 2001): 26-35, 33. ↩
2- Joseph Smith, “Mormonism,” The American Revivalist and Rochester Observer 7/6 (February 2, 1833). Only the last two paragraphs of Joseph’s letter to the newspaper were printed. The entire letter appeared eleven years later in the November 15, 18. issue of the Times and Seasons. ↩
3- Vern G. Swanson, “The Book of Mormon Art of Arnold Friberg, ‘Painter of Scripture, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 10/1 (Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 2001): 26-35, 33. ↩
4- Brant A. Gardner, ‘An Exploration in Critical Methodology: Critiquing a Critique,” FARMS Review 16/2 (Neal A Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 2004): 173-223, p. 218 ↩
5- John L.Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex (The Neal A Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2013), p. 688. ↩
6- Ibid, p. 694. ↩
7- John L. Sorenson, The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book (The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Provo, Utah 1992): 407. ↩
Joseph Smith during his lifetime more than likely knew about many of the Indian Chiefs below, who were from the same vicinity as him. Some lived at the same time as Joseph Smith and he may have also spent time with many of them. I share some unique articles below that you may find interesting in understanding young Joseph and his opportunities to learn from Native Americans.
“Use of Ganargua Creek dates back to pre-colonial times. It was a primary stopover point for the Iroquois on their trade routes. Mormonism founder Joseph Smith also had an interest in the creek after hearing a speech from Seneca Indian Chief Red Jacket at Palmyra in 1822. Before the Erie Canal was constructed in 1817, Ganargua Creek originally met the Canandaigua Outlet in Lyons to form the Clyde River.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganargua_Creek
“The Iroquois Confederacy had been a functioning democracy for centuries by Benjamin Franklin’s day. Sometime between 1000 and 1450, the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca Nations came together to become the Iroquois Confederacy, and in the early 18th century they were joined by the Tuscaroras. Referred to as the Six Nations by the English, and the Iroquois by the French, the Confederacy called themselves the Haudenosaunee, or People Building a Long House.” By Cynthia Feathers and Susan Featherswww.upenn.edu/gazette/0107/gaz09.html
“Contrary, then, to widespread assumptions during Joseph Smith’s lifetime that the Onondaga migrated to the New York region, it becomes clear that they originated here as a small, narrowly localized amalgamation of a few villages near Onondaga Lake, during the century before Columbus’ discovery of America” Beauchamp’s Aboriginal Place Names of New York;
“How America Was Discovered is a story told by Handsome Lake (Seneca Prophet), and documented by Arthur C. Parker, about a young minister who meets the one he perceives to be the Lord, who then asks him to go to a new land and bring with him cards, money, a fiddle, whiskey, and blood corruption. In return the young minister will become rich. The young minister sought out Christopher Columbus, and with the help of his crew, traveled to the Americas. They turned back to report what they had seen, which caused an immigration of people from Europe to the Americas. Along with the people came the five things that aided in destroying the natives. The end reveals that the “Lord” in the gold castle was actually the devil, and that even he knew what he had caused was wrong.” Rudes, B. Tuscarora English Dictionary Toronto.
“On the one hand, there are parallels between Handsome Lake’s teachings and Book of Mormon, economic and social interactions between Iroquois and white settlers at the time were still extensive during the early decades of the 19th century, and Lucy Mack Smith wrote that Joseph talked about Indians “as if he had spent his whole life among them.” Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations (Liverpool: S.W. Richards, 1853. “Joseph Smith was interested in the people who lived around him. Young Joseph was a member of the juvenile debating club in Palmyra during 1822 when Red Jacket, arguably the most widely-known Seneca of this period, delivered a speech in town. Joseph also liked to hang out on Ganargua Creek (Mud Creek) in the area where Iroquois travelers camped. He had interest and access.” Joseph Smith and the Code of Handsome Lake Lori Taylor, Ph.D.
The Onondaga Nation at the great white pine tree in Syracuse NY on the shores of Onondaga Lake is where the message of peace was planted, and the hatchets were buried according to many researchers. Similarly, the Lamanites , “…buried the weapons of war, for peace.” (“a peacemaker crossed Onondaga Lake in a stone canoe, how he convinced warring nations to bury their weapons beneath a tree of peace.”) Sean Kirst Syracuse.com (Compare Alma 24:19)
“The Onondagas: These have special interest… this warrior, Zelph, was an Onondaga, as well as a “white” Lamanite, and that the Onondagas (of New York), consequently must be of Lamanite lineage.” J.M. Sjodahl, An Introduction to the Study of the Book of Mormon
Red Jacket
INDIAN SPEECH, Delivered before a Gentleman Missionary, from Massachusetts, by a Chief, commonly called by the white people RED JACKET. His Indian name is SAGU-Y A-WHAT-HATH, which being interpreted, is KEEPER-AWAKE.
In the summer of 1805, a number of the principal chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations of Indians, principally Senecas, assembled at Buffaloe Creek, in the State of New-York, at the particular request of a gentleman missionary, (Rev. Mr. Cram,) from the State of Massachusetts. The missionary being furnished with an interpreter, and accompanied by the agent of the United States, for Indian Affairs, met the Indians in council, and had a talk with them; when their Chief delivered the following answer:
Friend & Brother. —It was the will of the Great Spirit that we should meet this day. He orders all things and has given as a fine day for our council. He has taken his garment from before the sun, and caused it to shine with brightness upon us. Our eyes are opened, that we see clearly; our ears are unstopped, that we have been able to hear distinctly the words you have spoken. For all these favors we thank the Great Spirit, and HIM only.
Brother. This council fire was kindled by you. It was at your request that we came together at this time. We have listened with attention to what you have said. You requested us to speak our minds freely. This gives us great joy; for we now consider that we stand upright before you, and can speak what we think. All have heard your voice, and all speak to you as one man. Our minds are agreed.
Brother. You say you want an answer to your talk before you leave this place. It is right you should have one, as you are at a great distance from home, and we do not wish to detain you. But we will first look back a little, and tell you what our fathers have told us, and what we have heard from the white people.
Brother. Listen to what we say. There was a time when our forefathers owned this great island. Their feats extended from the rising to the setting of the sun. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of the Indians. He had created the buffaloe, the deer, and other animals for food. He had made the bear and the beaver. Their skins served us for clothing. He had scattered them over the country, and taught us how to take them. He had caused the earth to produce corn for bread. All this He had done for his red children because he loved them. If we had some disputes about our hunting ground, they were generally settled without the shedding of much blood. But an evil day came upon us. Your fore-fathers crossed the great water and landed upon this island. Their numbers were small. They found friends, not enemies. They told us they had fled from their own country for fear of wicked men, and had come here to enjoy their religion. They asked for a small seat. We took pity on them, we granted their request, and they sat down amongst us. We gave them corn and meat, they gave us poison [alluding, it is supposed to ardent spirits] in return.
The white people had now found our country. Tidings were carried back and more came amongst us. Yet we did not fear them. We took them to be friends. They called us brothers. We believed them, and gave them a larger seat. At length their numbers had greatly increased. They wanted more land; they wanted our country. Our eyes were opened and our minds became uneasy. Wars took place. Indians were hired to fight against Indians, and many of our people were destroyed. They also brought strong liquors amongst us. It was strong and powerful and has slain thousands.
Brother. Our seats were once large and yours were small. You have now become a great people, and we have scarcely a place left to spread our blankets. You have got our country, but are not satisfied; you want to force your religion upon us.
Brother. Continue to listen.
You say you are sent to instruct us how to worship the Great Spirit agreeably to his mind, and, if we do not take hold of the religion which you white people teach, we shall be unhappy hereafter. You say that you are right and we are lost. How do we know this to be true? We understand that your religion is written in a book. If it was intended for us as well as you, why has not the Great Spirit given to us, and not only to us, but to our forefathers, the knowledge of that book, with the means of understanding it rightly? We only know what you tell us about it. How shall we know when to believe, being so often deceived by the white people.
Brother. You say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agreed, as you can all read the book?
Brother. We do not understand these things. We are told that your religion was given to your forefathers, and has been handed down from father to son. We also have a religion, which was given to our forefathers, and has been handed down to us their children. We worship in that way. It teaches us to be thankful for all the favors we receive: to love each other, and to be united. We never quarrel about religion.
Brother. The Great Spirit has made us all, but he has made a great difference between his white and red children. He has given us different complexions and different customs. To you he has given the arts. To these he has not opened our eyes. We know these things to be true. Since he has made so great a difference between us in other things; why may we not conclude that he has given us a different religion according to our understanding? The Great Spirit does right. He knows what is best for his children; we are satisfied.
Brother. We do not wish to destroy your religion, or take it from you. We only want to enjoy our own.
Brother. We are told that you have been preaching to the white people in this place. These people are our neighbors. We will wait a little while and see what effect your preaching has upon them. If we find it does them good, makes them honest and less disposed to cheat Indians; we will then consider again what you have said.
Brother. You have now heard our answer to your talk, and this is all we have to say at present. As we are going to part, we will come and take you by the hand, and hope the Great Spirit will protect you on your journey, and return you safe to your friends.
As the Indians began to approach the missionary, he rose hastily from his seat and replied, that he could not take them by the hand, that there was no fellowship between the religion of God and the works of the devil.
It being afterwards suggested to the missionary that his reply to the Indians were rather indiscreet; he observed, that he supposed the ceremony of shaking hands would be received by them as a token that he assented to what they had said. Being otherwise informed, he said he was sorry for the expression.
NATHANIEL COVERLY, Printer, Milk St. Boston.
Early Mormon Lamanism, Forgotten Apocalyptic Visions, and the Indian Prophet
The year 1890 looms large in American history. It ranks up there with 1776, 1877, and 1945 as important dates that historians have used to organize our past. It also shapes collective memory. Mormons most readily associate 1890 with the Woodruff Manifesto and the ?official? end of polygamy. For Americans, and westerners more specifically, 1890 represents the end of the Frontier, the most American part of our history, to paraphrase Frederick Jackson Turner. According to C. Vann Woodward, the 1890s marked the hardening of segregation in the South.
1890 also marked the date of the last significant massacre of between 150 and 300 Oglala Lakota Indians (Sioux) at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. As the last major altercation between a Native group and the U.S. military, Wounded Knee has taken on great significance in Western and Native histories, marking the symbolic date of the last time that Native peoples had the potential to rise up militarily to define their own destinies. As Philip Deloria has noted, ?Some people?especially white Americans?dated the end of the old days to 1890, when U.S. soldiers had surrounded and slaughtered Big Foot’s band at Wounded Knee Creek. . . . Wounded Knee seemed to mark a. . .division across time. It split old days apart from new days (even as memory and shared culture stitched them together again).?[1] For white America,
Wounded Knee marked the end of the ?Indian Wars? of the late nineteenth-century, the last of the ?heroic yet doomed? military struggles over the fate of the continent. Wounded Knee also had significant consequences for what might be called ?Lamanism,? or the cultural production of Lamanites among white Latter-day Saints. As John-Charles Duffy suggests, the massacre ended ?armed resistance to the U.S. government. . . .[and] Indians’ submission to the reservation system dulled apocalyptic expectations about Lamanites violently reclaiming their promised land.?[2] In truth, it is doubtful that most white Mormons today, or even most Mormon historians for that matter, recognize the full significance of Lamanites/Native Americans in early Mormon history.[3] When The Book of Mormon appeared in 1830, it was a radical document, one that envisioned the eradication of much of white America by Native Americans and the absorption of a small group of converted Gentiles into the chosen remnant of Jacob (see especially 3 Nephi 21). Much of Joseph Smith’s Zion project centered around the promise of the large-scale conversion of Lamanites and rumors circulated from the 1830s through the 1890s of a white Mormon/Native American alliance that would wipe out white America. Parley P. Pratt, in his highly influential Voice of Warning, addressed Native America in saying that the very places of their [that is, white Americans] dwellings will become desolate except such of them as are gathered and numbered with you; and you will exist in peace, upon the face of this land, from generation to generation. And your children will only know, that the Gentiles once conquered this country, and became a great nation here, as they read it in history; as a thing long since passed away, and remembrance of it almost gone from the earth.[4]
Perhaps due to the rampant rumors of the white Mormon-Native alliance, Pratt deleted this passage from subsequent editions. Ironically, with the possibility of such Indian violence existing only in memory or distant millennialism after 1890, it has been white Mormons who have largely forgotten the violent Lamanism of the early church.
White Mormons have also forgotten that some early Saints looked for the Lord to raise up a great Indian prophet. In late 1830, Ohio newspaperman Eber D. Howe noted that Oliver Cowdery and his companions continued ?on their mission to the Indians (or Lamanites, as they term them) in the ‘far west,’ where they say a Prophet is to be raised up, in whom the tribes will believe.?[5] This is intriguing. Unfortunately, surviving evidence has not been located to flesh out what else Cowdery, JS, or others thought of this Indian prophet. However, when Orson Pratt prepared annotations for the 1879 edition of the Book of Mormon, his footnote for 2 Nephi 3:24, And there shall rise up one mighty among them, who shall do much good, both in word and deed, being an instrument in the hands of God, with exeeding faith, to work mighty wonders, and do that which is great in the sight of God, unto the bringing to pass much restoration unto the house of Israel, and unto the seed of thy brethren.
Pratt noted that the one to be risen up would be ?an Indian prophet.?[6] Howe’s use of the phrase ?to be raised up? suggests that Cowdery and others had this verse in mind when talking about this Indian prophet, although without more evidence, we can’t know for certain.
The missionaries visited the Wyandots (Hurons), the Delawares, the Catteraugus (Seneca Iroquois), and the Shawnees during this first Lamanite mission. While we do not know for sure why these groups were chosen for proselyting, Lori Taylor has noted that each of these Native nations claimed prophetic traditions. The Hurons spoke of Deganawidah, the Master of Things and the Peacemaker, a Huron prophet who taught the Iroquois Confederacy a new social order of cooperation. The Delawares followed Neolin, a prophet who encouraged his people to reject European ways in favor of the old ways, in order to gain favor with the Great Spirit. Neolin was associated with Pontiac and his war in 1763-1764. The Iroquois believed in Handsome Lake, a prophet who received heavenly visitations in 1799-1800 from four visitors who encouraged him and his people to embrace traditional practices and to observe the ceremonial cycle. He encouraged his people to give up alcohol, witchcraft, and other vices. And lastly, the Shawnees followed Tenskwatawa, brother of the famous Tecumseh, who taught that the Shawnee needed to reject white ways in order to push back white settlement. Tenskwatawa learned from Handsome Lake and taught some things that appears to be influenced by Christianity. Although it is unclear how much the early Mormons knew about these prophets or the Native peoples who claimed them, Taylor’s speculation that the missionaries proselyted the Wyandots, Delawares, Catteraugus, and Shawnees for this reason remains intriguing. Equally fascinating is Taylor’s analysis of a story told by some contemporary Iroquois that JS knew about Handsome Lake’s teachings (who was active in western New York until his death in 1815) and that the Book of Mormon was shaped by Handsome Lake’s ideas.[7] Whether there is any truth to such accounts awaits further investigation by ethnohistorians, but one thing is certain, the Book of Mormon and early white Mormon interpretations of it had more in common with the apocalyptic visions of Neolin, Tenskwatawa, and other Native prophets than with the views of most other white Americans of the nineteenth century.
_______
[1] Deloria, Indians in Unexpected Places, 15-16.
[2] Duffy, ?The Use of ‘Lamanite’ in Official LDS Discourse,? Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 1 (Winter 2008): 131.
[3] Walker, “?Seeking the ‘Remnant’: The Native American during the Joseph Smith Period,? Journal of Mormon History 19, no. 1 (1993): 1-33. Walker argues that historians have largely failed to recognize the centrality of Native Americans in early Mormonism. Mormon historians are not alone in marginalizing the importance of Native Americans when writing about nineteenth-century America. See Susan Scheckel’s The Insistence of the Indian: Race and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century American Culture for a discussion of the centrality of Natives in nineteenth-century America and the tendency of twentieth-century historians to emphasize slavery as the central race question of the century. Much of the new New Indian History of the last two decades has recovered the power and agency of Native peoples in early American history. See Richard White, The Middle Ground, Alan Taylor, The Divided Ground, Ned Blackhawk, Violence Over the Land, and Pekka Hamalainan, The Comanche Empire, for some of the best examples of this new literature.
[4] As quoted in Underwood, The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism, 80.
[5] ?The Book of Mormon,? The Painesville Telegraph, 30 November 1830, 3.
[6] Thanks to Robin Jensen, the 2004 Joseph Smith Papers Student Researcher of the Year, for checking the reference for me.
[7] Taylor, ?Telling Stories About Mormons and Indians,? PhD. Diss, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2000, 141-60, 306-51. Taylor notes that Handsome Lake’s nephew, Red Jacket, spoke in Palmyra in 1822. Native Americans and early Mormonism. Juvenile Instructor
Joseph Smith and the Code of Handsome Lake by Lori Taylor, Ph.D.
Lori Taylor has three degrees in American Studies: Ph.D. from the SUNY at Buffalo, M.A. from The George Washington University, and B.A. from Brigham Young University. Through all of those degrees, she chased down the ways people frame and reframe the cultural and historical tidbits from which they make deep meaning. The joy in historiography for Lori is the story that makes THEN interesting NOW.
In 1994, sitting in a Western-themed lodge in Billings, Montana, a friend and colleague told me a story that I spent the next several years hunting down. I’m trained as a folklorist and oral historian, so the play of story, memory, and forgetting influence my understanding of histories. Whether the concept of “truth” plays any part in an exploration of this story, I’m not so sure. If the concept of “fact” is slippery for historians, “truth” is even more so.
“You’re a Mormon?” Nicholas said to me. “Oh, boy, do I have a good story to tell you.”
He spent more than an hour telling me about a sundance at Turtle Mountain in 1987 when dancers were talking as they prepared for the dance. It was here that he first heard the story he told me.
“Hey, you guys ever hear the story of how the Mormons came to be?” Wabanimkee had asked Nicholas and the other dancers. “The real story?”[1]
He told them about hard times in western New York after the War of 1812. The Senecas’ transition from their pre-white-settlement lives to the new reality after two generations was not going well. Iroquois have long been farmers, but crops had failed during the year of no summer in 1816. The local Indian agent wrote, “The situation of the Indians is truly deplorable.”[2]
During this period of transition and difficulty, the story goes, a young Joseph Smith worked as a field hand. He met Seneca field hands who were not like the other Senecas who were “into alcohol and debauchery and stuff.” He asked them why they were “so solid, so stable, so strong. And they say, well, they were followers of Handsome Lake.” Who was Handsome Lake? They told him.
Handsome Lake spent the last 15 years of his life, from 1800 to 1815, encouraging his people to turn away from alcohol, gambling, promiscuity, witchcraft, and the worst excesses that came with the settlers. He asked them to follow a code and a ceremonial cycle that maintained their Haudenosaunee identity while also embracing elements white Christian values. He preached of the need to adjust in order to survive. It wasn’t until 1826 that the women Faithkeepers of Tonawanda asked Handsome Lake’s grandson to recall the words of the teacher.[3] From these recollections, they created the Code of Handsome Lake, which has since evolved into the Gaiwiio (Good Word), the syncretic American religion practiced today as the longhouse religion of the Haudenosaunee. For most Iroquois, Handsome Lake is a prophet.
The Seneca field hands told Joseph Smith that Handsome Lake “found a way of blending” the best of Iroquois traditions and the best of Christian traditions “because his vision told him that they only way his people were going to survive is if they held on to the root, the main root of who they were throughout time that gave them a sense of identity and strength and consistency of heritage.” They had to incorporate the new into the old “in order for them to get along in this new society that was forming.”
Hearing the story of mixing two world views into a New World view, Joseph Smith said, “this is just what the white people need because they’re just as pitiful as the Indians are. And, because it’s a new world for everybody, what the white people need to do is to take the best of their Christian heritage and traditions and stuff that come out of their European ways and mix it with the indigenous ways of the people who have lived on this land for a long time.”
“And, so what he decided, what was really needed was an equivalent of Handsome Lake’s Gaiwiio, but for the white people, maybe with a little more Christian emphasis.”
What about all of the books and gold, the dancers asked the storyteller. The Senecas helped Joseph Smith, he said. “We’ll be better, us Indians will be better off if you white people do just like we did to get along here in this new world. We’ll be better off if you folks can understand us a little bit more by taking in some of our world view, too. So, we will help you. We will help you bring this new word. We will help you bring the Word to your own people.”
The teller of the story goes on to outline melting of the gold paid Tonawanda Senecas by the British for their help during the War of 1812 into tablets like Moses’ commandments, a story that bears no resemblance to reports of thin, brass plates found in construction of the Erie Canal during that generation. They told their stories in their own writing, taught him how to read it, then told him how he would make the discovery of his golden book a media event.
The story ends, and the sundance went on. Nicholas told me the story, and he told a few others, just as Wabanimkee had told a few others before.
In the years I spent asking whether such events could be possible let alone plausible—years I spent in graduate school in western New York with Haudenosaunee teachers, students, and friends—I heard a few much shorter versions of the story.
Among the questions I asked during my research was, what other comparisons have been made by those familiar with both the Iroquois longhouse and Mormonism? Edmund Wilson, on a tour of the Six Nations for the New Yorker in the 1950s, visited Philip Cook, Mohawk of Akwesasne. Cook was a convert to the LDS church. He told Wilson that he wondered whether Joseph Smith might have been influenced by Handsome Lake through Senecas in western New York, but “he concluded that no white man at the time could ever have had access to their ceremonies or understood what was said if he had.”[4]
Tracing the lines of acquaintances of all the people I know who know this story (at least, those who told me they know this story),[5] I find that one man knew them all or knew who told them. In another of Edmund Wilson’s articles for the New Yorker, he wrote of Wallace “Mad Bear” Anderson, in 1958 a dynamic man of 31 years old. Mad Bear become one of those elders who for young people in the 1960s and 1970s imparted Indian wisdom and stories. He also, in his extensive travels, made connections with indigenous peoples around the world and worked to bring them together. He spread Iroquois stories and his contemporary interpretations far and wide as a merchant seaman then as a travelling elder.
Mad Bear Anderson is the trickster figure in the story of Handsome Lake followers and Joseph Smith—possibly a source, possibly just a very strong teller of the tale.
Could these events have happened?
On the one hand, there are parallels between Handsome Lake’s teachings and Book of Mormon, economic and social interactions between Iroquois and white settlers at the time were still extensive during the early decades of the 19th century, and Lucy Mack Smith wrote that Joseph talked about Indians “as if he had spent his whole life among them.”[6] Joseph Smith was interested in the people who lived around him. Young Joseph was a member of the juvenile debating club in Palmyra during 1822 when Red Jacket, arguably the most widely-known Seneca of this period, delivered a speech in town. Joseph also liked to hang out on Ganargua Creek (Mud Creek) in the area where Iroquois travelers camped. He had interest and access.
On the other hand, melting down gold for thick tablets seems unlikely for quite a few reasons, including economic reality and cultural skill sets, and a coordinated cross-cultural media event is more of our day than of the 19th century. Even if such an event as described in the story actually happened in time, it is unlikely there would be any historically useful trace beyond memory through story.
Is the story possible? Sure. Is it plausible? Probably not, at least not in the specifics. After 200 years, a story can stretch to meet a lot of different needs. I’ve frequently heard people say after hearing the story, “I always wondered about that.” This story makes connections between peoples, connecting a few dots of curiosity. That may be the need it meets. Then again, it may bring up more questions than it claims to answer as it sparks an interest in what happened hundreds of years ago between early Mormons and their Haudenosaunee neighbors.
A generation ago, after scholars went through New York, turned it upside down and shook it out, someone asked if there is “anything new to be found in the history of the Church in New York.”[7]
Scholars have looked for influences on Mormonism in Puritan roots, evangelical revivals, hermetic traditions, folk magic, and in various social movements. Given the fact that Joseph Smith lived in Iroquoia—New York, Ontario, and beyond—we can include those historical sources for another potential area of influence. There is plenty “anything new” in Mormon history where it meets the parallel space of Indian Country. I’m confident more areas of influence will be added to the list in time as well.
Of course there is an endless new history to be written. We look in different places. We find different traces of the past. We ask different questions as we ourselves change. And, we rewrite histories we thought we knew when they no longer answer the questions we ask about our past. If history weren’t so fluid, there wouldn’t be much point in our discussing it here.
NOTES
The story and the questions come from my PhD dissertation, Telling Stories about Mormons and Indians (State University of New York at Buffalo, 2000).
[1] Nicholas C. P. Vrooman, “Handsome Lake, Joseph Smith, and the Word,” recorded 7 November 1994. For clarity, I’ve made my paraphrase and quotation of the story italics.
[2] Erastus Granger to Acting Secretary of War, George Graham, 20 January 1817. In Charles M. Snyder, ed., Red and White on the New York Frontier: A Struggle for Survival. Insights from the Papers of Erastus Granger, Indian Agent, 1807-1819 (Harrison, New York: Harbor Hill Books, 1978): 85.
[3] Elisabeth Tooker, “Iroquois Since 1820,” in Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15, Northeast, ed. Bruce G. Trigger (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1978): 452. There were others who contributed to the codification of the teachings of Handsome Lake as well.
[4] The New Yorker articles were published as Edmund Wilson, Apologies to the Iroquois (1959, 1960; Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1991): 123.
[5] Even as a colleague read over this post before I sent it, he said, “Now I understand better what my grandfather said to me about Seneca gold.” People I’ve known for years sometimes come up with pieces around the edges of this story.
[6] Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations (Liverpool: S.W. Richards, 1853): 85. If she told her stories in chronological order, the dates of these recitals would be 1823 or 1824.
[7] Chad Flake, review of The Restoration Movement: Essays in Mormon History, eds. F. Mark McKiernan, Alma R. Blair, Paul M. Edwards, BYU Studies 15/3 (Spring 1975): 373.
New theory connects a Native American prophet with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon by Jana Riess on Religion News Service
“Peter Manseau published a wonderfully engaging book on American religious history. One Nation, Under Gods is chock-full of “Aha!” moments, but for purposes of this blog I wanted to talk with Peter about his chapter on early Mormonism’s interplay with Native Americans.
In particular, I was intrigued by a theory about the origins of the Book of Mormon that I had not heard before. (As you can read below, Peter is eager to point out that he was not the first to make a connection between Joseph Smith and the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake, but it was certainly new to me.) — JKR
RNS: First off, you say in the book that Joseph Smith “came to look upon Native Americans not merely as an evangelical challenge but as a key to understanding the Christian scriptures . . . . Why did Smith alone see the New World as a missing piece in the story the Old World told about itself?” Great question. What do you think?
Peter Manseau: The biggest theological problem Europeans faced when they arrived in America was what to do with Native Americans, whose existence suggested God created a population that didn’t fit into their biblical worldview. This prompted questions: “Do they have souls?”, “Are they of the devil?” For Joseph Smith, it was “Are these people mentioned in the Bible after all?” If they were, it solved a theological puzzle.
RNS: So you see Joseph Smith as being interested in the Hebraic origins of Native Americans. What is the connection with Handsome Lake?
Manseau: Handsome Lake was of the Seneca people, the brother of a chief called Cornplanter, who became known in the late 18th century as someone who had welcomed the Quakers in his village. Handsome Lake meanwhile was known as a ne’er-do-well and a drunk. One winter, he became sick and it seemed like he was going to die. While he lay dying, he had a vision of several figures who came to him and told him to reform his life. They instructed him to write down the visions as a message that came to be known as the Code of Handsome Lake.
Handsome Lake’s vision blended Native American and Quaker religious ideas. It really took hold among the Seneca, the Iroquois. He became quite well known for it.
Handsome Lake’s revival might be considered the Native American outgrowth of the Second Great Awakening that began in the region. This of course is where we find Joseph Smith as well, who grows up very much interested in Native American culture and the lore that existed all around him. He, too, was interested in the general question: what do you do religiously with Native Americans as a people not accounted for in the original revelation? Whether through revelation or imagination, he proposed an alternate story that accounts for them.
What scholars now are beginning to do is investigate how Joseph Smith was influenced by Native American culture, and specifically by a movement such as Handsome Lake’s.
RNS: Interesting. You note in the book that Handsome Lake’s nephew lectured in Palmyra just one month before Smith claimed to have found the golden plates.
Manseau: Handsome Lake’s nephew was another Iroquois leader named Red Jacket. He presented his ideas — not quite the Code of Handsome Lake, but something similar — when he was in Palmyra lecturing very shortly before Joseph Smith claimed to have discovered this new scripture that incorporated Native Americans into biblical history.
RNS: Did Joseph attend that lecture?
Manseau: It’s likely. It seems that given who he was at the time — a teenage boy very interested in Native Americans — the arrival of this renowned chief would have been a big deal. It was publicized in the Palmyra Gazette and other newspapers.
RNS: How did you first learn about this connection?
Manseau: I came across an unpublished dissertation by Lori Taylor, who wrote about the idea of Handsome Lake having potential influence on Joseph Smith. I had seen it referenced on Juvenile Instructor.
RNS: Bottom line: Was Joseph Smith influenced by Handsome Lake, even indirectly, in writing the Book of Mormon?
Manseau: Maybe. But the other side of the coin that apologetics would offer is that the Book of Mormon, being an ancient text, had influenced Native Americans from generation to generation so that there was already a remnant of Book of Mormon truth in Seneca culture. Then it becomes a question of in which direction influence might have moved.” Jana Riess
When serving as Mission President to the Seminole Indians in Central Florida, Murray J. Rawson was teaching a group of the tribe about the Book of Mormon when he was interrupted by their Chief, saying: “We had a war long ago with a light skinned people around the Great Lakes. We conquered them but we had so much respect for their warrior chief that we buried him at the mouth of the Oswego River that is in New York State. We don’t discuss this very much because it is an embarrassment to us. President Rawson then asked why this is an embarrassment, and the Chief replied, “ Our history is written on metal plates and buried in a hill in New York, but we don’t know which hill!” (Talk given to missionaries in training at the MTC, Provo, Utah 1979, by President Murray J. Rawson).
“In 1837, Elder Parley P. Pratt, one of the early defenders of the church, wrote a work entitled, “A Voice of Warning,” which has been published in many different editions in Europe and America. In the edition of 1885, published at Lamoni, Iowa, page 82, there is a quotation from Mr. Boudinot, which reads as follows: Mr. Boudinot in his able work, remarks concerning their language: “Their language in its roots, idiom, and particular construction, appears to have the whole genius of the Hebrew; and what is very remarkable, and well worthy of serious attention, has most of the peculiarities of the language, especially those in which it differs from most other languages. There is a tradition related by an aged Indian of the Stockbridge Tribe, that their fathers were once in possession of a ‘Sacred Book’ which was handed down from generation to generation, and at last hid in the earth, since which time they have been under the feet of their enemies. But those oracles were to be restored to them again, and then they would triumph over their enemies and regain their. ancient country, together with their rights and privileges.” JOURNAL OF HISTORY APRIL, 1909 Published by Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
(Above) In 1844 A.D. a newspaper called the “Prophet” published to the world in 1844 this broadside page declared that the Stick of Joseph had been translated and published into English for the first time. Notice the quote at the bottom from the aged Indian.
As many of you know, Rod Meldrum’s research has blessed and enhanced the lives of thousands and increased their faith in the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, the prophetic role of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and a renewed understanding of the sacred covenants with God on His Promised Lands.
The FIRM Foundation (Foundation for Indigenous Research and Mormonism), today comprises ten boards with more than 200 board members and over 40,000 newsletter recipients. The FIRM Foundation sponsors two International Book of Mormon Evidence Expos and Conferences annually with additional regional conferences and events throughout the country and around the world bringing together dozens of the top LDS speakers for thousands of Latter-day Saints.
For years the FIRM Foundation has been trying to develop a more cordial relationship with those who do not necessarily agree with their mission statement. Those who share the Mesoamerican theory of the Book of Mormon love the Church and the Book of Mormon every bit as much as Rod and FIRM Foundation does. Rod, Jonathan Neville, Wayne May and many others have shared with me a desire to reach out to those who believe opposing theories and have meaningful discussions and friendly debate with them.. For whatever reason it has been difficult to make that happen.
A few months ago, Greg Jarrard called me shortly after our April BofM Conference and said he had an idea. He has been in radio for many years and has done a lot of work in marketing and advertising. Greg asked me what I thought of his idea to bring the Heartland and Mesoamerican theories together through radio. I gave it much thought and spoke with Rod and Jonathan about it, and we felt it was a great idea.
I have listened for years to the Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved and Larry Elder radio show’s on KLO AM 1430 here in Salt Lake. When Greg mentioned he wanted to develop Latter Day Radio to air from 10-1 each day to replace Jim Rome whom I never listened to, I was excited. Greg wanted Rod Meldrum to be his first guest and we were honored and excited to participate.
So here it is. It happened quickly, and we hope our friends, customers, and followers will love this opportunity to hear Rod speak about his love of the Book of Mormon and the Savior. We are excited to begin a discussion with Martin Tanner. Martin is well known here in Utah as he has done many programs and currently has his “Religion Today” radio program on KSL Radio. Martin is a strong proponent of the Mesoamerican Theory and Greg has now brought him and Rod together. We hope this will be the beginning of a wonderful relationship.
LATTER DAY RADIO DEBUT! 1430am KLO Friday, June 1st, 10am–1pm
Please tune in as your support is needed so we may continue this adventure. In a few weeks Greg mentioned he will have Jonathan Neville on with Martin as well. LAWYERS FACE OFF in debate about Book of Mormon lands! Martin Tanner, himself a “Meso-America guy,” and “Hopewell” proponent Jonathan Neville, will defend their views on where the Nephites lived and died, coming in June (date TBD)
Rod Meldrum
Author & International Speaker who loves the gospel and believes the Book of Mormon speaks all about the Promised Land of the United States He shares why he feels Book of Mormon events happened in North America.
VS.
Martin Tanner
A long-time defender of the truth who speaks on behalf of Gospel principles fearlessly and directly, a veteran talk radio host of Religion Today and Salt Lake attorney. Why he believes in the Mesoamerica theory.
No Holds Barred, Mano-a-Mano
Join us,
Rian Nelson, FIRM Foundation Manager
“Great Principle of Happiness Consists in Having a Body”
“We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the celestial kingdom. The great principle of happiness consists in having a body. The devil has no body, and herein is his punishment. . . .
All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not. The devil has no power over us only as we permit him. The moment we revolt at anything which comes from God, the devil takes power.[Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (1976), 181]
Now, let me restate that: The punishment of the adversary was that he did not receive a body. All beings who have bodies, as the Prophet said it, will have power over those who do not. The devil has no power over us, only as we permit him…
Editor’s note: This simply means we should have no fear of Satan. He can hurt us but we can crush him. Don’t give into his influence. That also means using our “eyes” as the Sprit to our Soul and not confusing the symbols of the world that depict the eye as evil. All things are created by God, and Satan just uses or steals God’s ideas to deceive us. Satan cannot Create anything!
Biggest Challenge and Best Time
We live in very troubled times—the beginning of even more troubled times. I want to speak to you very openly. What we faced in World War II, the jeopardy and challenge, was nothing compared to what you young people face now. It is a terrible and challenging time and, at once, perhaps the best time ever in the history of mankind to be alive.
I want to make this point: In the premortal existence, we were given spirit bodies, and we were given agency. So we are free.” The Instrument of Your Mind and the Foundation of Your Character BOYD K. PACKER of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles February 2, 2003
Only Two Days Left to Purchase Early-Bird ConferenceTickets Here
All-Searching Eye
Mosiah 27:31 Yea, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess before him. Yea, even at the last day, when all men shall stand to be judged of him, then shall they confess that he is God; then shall they confess, who live without God in the world, that the judgment of an everlasting punishment is just upon them; and they shall quake, and tremble, and shrink beneath the glance of his all-searching eye. (See page 193 Annotated Book of Mormon
The Jewish people use the Hebrew word “Hamesh” as an equivalent for “Hamsa.” Hamesh means “five” in Hebrew. Jewish people refer to the five-fingered hand symbol as the “Hamesh” hand. It has been present in Judaism dating all the way back to Biblical times, where it is referenced in Deuteronomy 5:15, stated in the Ten Commandments as the “strong hand” of God who led the Jews out of Egypt.* The eye within the hand represents the all-searching Eye of God. Shown below are artifacts dated to Hopewell time-frames on display at the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site near East St. Louis, Illinois. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsa)
(Left) Replica shell of an all-searching eye in a five-fingered hand Hamsa amulet (note the hole at the bottom). Both the item on the left and below are displayed in the Cahokia Museum, on loan from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL.
(Left) Hopewell era etched stone of an all-searching eye symbol in a Hamsa five fingered hand pattern.
Salt Lake Temple
(Picture Right) “The all seeing eye above the second window in the east and west central towers [of the Salt Lake Temple], is an eye looking out at us from below a veil of pleated fabric. Surrounding the eye is another aureole of light depicted by a raised oval with outward shooting rays. The keystone in the arch above is blank. This is the all seeing eye a symbol frequently used in pioneer Utah. This symbol reminded the Saints that the eye of the Lord was upon them and that all that they did should be in accordance with the will of the Lord. John Taylor noted, “it penetrates and is enabled to weigh the actions and motives of the children of men.” In proverbs we are told, “the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good.” (Prov. 15:3) The all seeing eye of the Lord was often used on Church cooperative buildings with the phrase “Holiness to the Lord” arched over it. Sometimes the all seeing eye was used in pioneer tabernacles. One is located over the choir seats in the St. George Tabernacle.
However the all seeing eyes on the temple differ from all the rest. Most all seeing eyes have eyebrows above them, but those on the Salt Lake Temple are depicted looking out from beneath a pleated veil. Veils are used to separate the sacred from the profane, the spiritual from the carnal, truth from confusion, the Lord from mankind. The veil separating man and the Lord is removed only on rare occasions of great faith and obedience and because of the knowledge of this man, [the Brother of Jared] he could not be kept from beholding within the veil; and he saw the finger of Jesus which when he saw he fell with fear for he knew that it was the finger of the Lord and he had faith no longer for he knew, nothing doubting. Wherefore, having this perfect knowledge of God he could not be kept from within the veil therefore he saw Jesus and He did minister unto him. (Ether 3:19-20). “And prepare for the revelation which is to come when the veil of the covering of my temple in my tabernacle which hideth the earth shall be taken off and all flesh shall see me together.” D&C 101:23.” Exterior Symbolism of the Salt Lake Temple Reflecting the Faith that Called the Place Into Being by Richard G Oman
All Seeing Eye Examples
“While it doesn’t look like an “eye” in the traditional sense, the common pine cone is also associated with eye symbolism. The human pineal gland is shaped like and named after a pine cone, and it is an essential component in how we perceive light. This gland is said to lie at the geometric center of the brain, and considered by some as the biological Third Eye; the French philosopher Descartes famously referred to the pineal gland as the Seat of the Soul. Many believe this gland is the body’s Third Eye, responsible for spiritual enlightenment and sometimes referred to as the “seat of the soul.” Many religious and cultural artifacts depict heroes holding staves topped by pine cones or wearing crowns made to resemble pine cones.” The Symbolism of Eyes The esoteric significance of the pinecone dates as far back as the ancient Babylonian mystery religions as a symbolic representation of the Pineal Gland.
Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, is a Roman Catholic church in Aachen, western Germany.
Jacopo Pontormo: Abendmahl in Emmaus (1525)
All-Seeing Eye Rome Church
Annuit Cœptis
The reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States
“Annuit cœptis (/ˈænuɪt ˈsɛptɪs/; in Classical Latin: [ˈannuɪt ˈkoe̯ptiːs]) is one of two mottos on the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. (The second motto is Novus ordo seclorum; another motto appears on the obverse (front) side of the Great Seal: E pluribus unum.) Taken from the Latin words annuo (third-person singular present or perfect annuit), “to nod” or “to approve”, and coeptum (plural coepta), “commencement, undertaking”, it is literally translated, “[providence] favors our undertakings” or “[providence] has favored our undertakings” (annuit could be in either the present or perfect tense). Wikepedia/Annuitcœptis
The Eye of Providence
Great Seal of the United States
The Great Seal of the United States is filled with symbolic design. It contains the all seeing eye surrounded by the words “Annuit Coeptis”. This motto was chosen by Charles Thomson, the seal’s final designer. Charles Thomson himself stated, “The Eye over it [the pyramid] and the motto Annuit Cœptis allude to the many signal interpositions of providence in favor of the American cause.” This reminder of God’s providence was also included on the first currency of our new nation.
In an article called “The All-Seeing-Eye” Symbol and the Urim and Thummim Connection by Steve Reed said, “We then have an account of Joseph Smith’s first interaction with the Nephite ‘urim and thummim’ via Joseph Knight who said:
“…he (Joseph Smith) seamed to think more of the glasses or the urim and thummim than he did of the plates for says he, I can see anything. They are Marvelous.”
So it appears that the seer stone and the urim and thummim both allowed the user to possess the attribute of an ‘all-seeing-eye’. We know of ‘seers’ in the scriptures, men who had the ability to perceive things that other men could not through divine power.
In the Book of Mormon, the missionary Ammon explains what a seer is to the king of Zarahemla:
“Now Ammon said unto him: I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God. And the things are called interpreters, and no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer.” (Mosiah 8:13)
Where it gets interesting to me, however, is Lucy Mack Smith’s physical description of the interpreters/urim and thummim that Joseph Smith had in his possession.
“On the morning of September 22, after Joseph had returned from the hill, he placed the article [the Nephite interpreters] of which he spoke into my hands, and, upon examination, I found that it consisted of two smooth three cornered diamonds set in glass, and the glasses were set in silver bows, which were connected with each other in much the same way as old fashioned spectacles. . . .[picture left]. He [Joseph Smith] handed me the breastplate spoken of in his history. It was wrapped in a thin muslin handkerchief, so thin that I could feel its proportions without any difficulty. It was concave on one side and convex on the other, and extended from the neck downwards, as far as the center of the stomach of a man of extraordinary size. It had four straps of the same material, for the purpose of fastening it to the breast.” (History of Joseph Smith by His Mother Lucy Mack Smith)
The actual shape of the urim and thummim that Joseph possessed were triangular! Lucy also described them as ‘spectacles’ and in other accounts we read that Joseph probably held them up to his face to use them as one would use a pair of glasses.
In 1891 William Smith, the Prophet’s brother, was interviewed and he said:
“Two Stones, Fastened to a Breastplate” JSH 1:35
“Among other things we inquired minutely about the Urim and Thummim and the breastplate. We asked him what was meant by the expression “two rims of a bow,” which held the former. He said a double silver bow was twisted into the shape of the figure eight, and the two stones were placed literally between the two rims of a bow. At one end was attached a rod which was connected with the outer edge of the right shoulder of the breast-plate. By pressing the head a little forward, the rod held the Urim and Thummim before the eyes much like a pair of spectacles. A pocket was prepared in the breastplate on the left side, immediately over the heart. When not in use the Urim and Thummim was placed in this pocket, the rod being of just the right length to allow it to be so deposited.
This instrument could, however, be detached from the breastplate and his brother said Joseph often wore it detached when away from home, but always used it in connection with the breastplate when receiving official communications, and usually so when translating as it permitted him to have both hands free to hold the plates.” (J. W. Peterson in The Rod of Iron I:3 (February 1924), 6—7.)
Imagine Seeing Joseph Eyes Through the Interpreters
But think of what you would see if you were standing in front of someone holding the urim and thummim described up to their eye; you would have an eye within a triangle! So what we have with this information from church history is a link between the “All-Seeing-Eye” symbol and to the instrument known as a urim and thummim.
Another thing a triangle can symbolize is past, present and future, the knowledge and comprehension of which constitutes ‘omniscience’ one of God’s primary attributes. Take a look at Doctrine and Covenants 130:6-9:
“The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth; But they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord. The place where God resides is a great Urim and Thummim. This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be Christ’s.”
The All-Seeing-Eye symbol seems clearly indicative of the active use of the instrument known as a urim and thummimwhether that instrument be diamond or glass-like stones or of the place that God resides and the future glorified state of our own world.
The gift of omniscience seems to be something that God has shared with man in certain capacities here on the earth and something that will be an attribute to all those of a Celestial inheritance.
It should be no surprise to anyone that this marvelous symbol (and many others like the pentagram and the number 13) would be co-opted by Satan and others who wish to apply God’s divine attributes to their own selfish purposes. Everything originates from God. He is the great creator and Satan can create nothing in and of himself; “he is impotent” as Boyd K. Packer so succinctly put it. So any symbol he or others attribute to themselves is simply something that is being borrowed from a higher, purer source.
Our friend, Lenet Hadley Read has a greatEnsign article here circa 1981 that states:
“Symbols can, of course, be misleading. Interpretations can be wrong, or the symbol itself misunderstood. However, in dealing with scriptural symbols, we have been given a guide. The Savior proclaimed that “all things bear record of me” (Moses 6:63). That is, all symbols teach of Christ, of his mission and relationship to us.” (Lenet Hadley Read, “All Things Testify of Him: Understanding Symbolism in the Scriptures”, Ensign, Jan. 1981, 5)
I have learned over the years the truthfulness of the doctrine that there is opposition in all things; so if you can find a symbol being used for evil purposes, you can be pretty confident that there is a righteous use for that particular symbol somehow. I am personally grateful for the context that the restoration brings to the study of symbolism.
Symbols are nothing more than an alphabet; letters that can be rearranged to convey different ideas. They are neither good nor evil in and of themselves. Just as I can take a few letters and spell the word D-O-G which would make you think of a furry four-legged beast, or I can arrange them to spell G-O-D and the meaning could not be more different.
Satan spoke to Eve in the form of the serpent and Moses was commanded by God to build a brass serpent to heal all Israelites who looked upon it. This same serpent-on-a-staff motif as a method of healing is also utilized in the medical industry in the form of the intertwining snakes of the Caduceus.
So the meaning of the symbol is defined by the intent of whomever is using it.
The search for the true meaning of symbols will be something that will always fascinate me and I look forward to a future day when all symbols can be understood in their proper order and place in truth.”
“Part of our problem is that we are not particularly a symbol-oriented people.
We like prose; well-written sentences laid out so carefully that you can’t misunderstand them. We are not big on poetry; we don’t read very much of it, particularly any serious kinds of poetry.
We like the Doctrine and Covenants. It lays out ideas line upon line, precept upon precept, building upon each previous idea. We’re not big on the Old Testament. It is so large, and it is full of strange things that are going on there that we’re not always familiar with.
We like Nephi. He says, ‘My soul delights in plainness.’ We’re not wild about Isaiah. Isaiah uses all kinds of word-pictures. And he loves pronouns and doesn’t particularly feel it necessary to give you an antecedent to the pronoun.
Now the temple is more poetry than prose. It is more Old Testament than Doctrine and Covenants. It is more Isaiah than Nephi. So our challenge as members of the Church is to learn how to learn through the use of symbols.” (S. Michael Wilcox – House of Glory)
Hebrew Letter Shin
“It is speculated that Jews were among the first to use this amulet due to their beliefs about the evil eye. The symbol of the hand appears in Kabbalistic manuscripts and amulets, doubling as the Hebrew letter “Shin”, the first letter of “Shaddai”, one of the names referring to God. The use of the hamsa in Jewish culture has been intermittent, utilized often by Sephardic Jews during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, then less and less over time into the mid-twentieth century. However, the hamsa has been present in Judaism dating all the way back to Biblical times, where it is referenced in Deuteronomy 5:15, stated in the Ten Commandments as the “strong hand” of God who led the Jews out of Egypt. The hamsa is later seen in Jewish art as God’s hand reaching down from heaven during the times of late antiquity, the Byzantine period, and even medieval Europe. Evidence has also emerged of the hamsa being used by Jews from medieval Spain, often associated with “sympathetic magic”. Historians such as Shalom Sabar believe that after the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492, exiled Jews likely used the hamsa as protection in the foreign lands they were forced to relocate to, however this assumption has been difficult to prove. According to Sabar, the hamsa has also been used later in Europe “as a distinctive sign of the priesthood, especially when they wished to show that a person was of priestly descent…”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsa
THE CITY OF LEHI BUILT- Annotated Book of Mormon page 558 “…in a particular manner.” (Alma 50:15; Insight p. 312)
The Hebrew Shin, the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet, is the first letter of two of the names of God. Shin also stands for the word Shaddai, a name for God Almighty. It is formed roughly in the shape of the English letter ‘W’ with the left and middle legs connecting before jointly connecting to the right leg as shown on the left. One religious significance of the letter Shin in that there are three valleys that encompass the holy city of Jerusalem in the sacred name of God: the Ben Hinnom Valley, the Tyropoeon Valley and the Kidron Valley, and that these valleys converge to form the shape of the letter Shin (shown on the right; insert is an aerial view). The Temple in Jerusalem is located where the dagesh (horizontal line) ends. This is seen as a fulfillment of scripture (Deuteronomy 16:2) that instructs Jews to celebrate the Passover at “the place which the LORD shall choose to place His name there.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_(letter))
The city of Lehi began to be built “in a particular manner” (Alma 50:15) 71 years before Christ was born and may have been located at the East Forks Works in Clermont County, Ohio. The earthworks included sacred Jewish symbols of the oil lamp, the Menorah, a compass and square. Next to these symbolic earthworks is dirt dug out forming the sacred letter Shin as shown on the left aerial photo.
The East Fork Works survey plate XXXIV, No. 2, from Ancient Monuments by Squier and Davis, superimposed on a Google Earth map where it was surveyed in 1847. The letter Shin is shown within the yellow circle above left.
Allen Christensen’s new book (2019) titled, Joseph’s Remnant: Lamanties in Today’s America, involves biographical sketches of a number of Native American Latter-day Saints. Their lives and their struggles to achieve are many and varied. Aspects of their several tribal cultures are also considered as well as their long overlooked contributions as America’s first citizens. He includes real stories about Elder Larry Echo Hawk, Franklin Keel, Betty “Red Ant” LaFontaine, Delores Kahkonen and many others. You will also hear about the 85 Indian Chiefs who were baptized for the dead in the St George Temple shortly after those Founding Fathers who appeared to Wilford Woodruff. 240 pages
Native American Stories of:
Franklin Keel
Larry Echo Hawk
John Brown Jr
Sam Little
John Bluesalt
Delores Kahkonen
Michalyn Steele
Samuel Taylor Blue
Christopher Brent Chaney
James A. Cooper
Betty “Red Ant” LaFontaine
Lucy Morris Gishi
Ollie & Aneta Talker Whaley…
Allen C. Christensen is an agricultural scientist who served as Professor of Animal and Veterinary Sciences and Dean of the College of Agriculture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and as Director of the Ezra Taft Benson Agriculture and Food Institute at Brigham Young University. In collaboration with the Tuba City Arizona Stake, the Benson Institute inaugurated a location specific gardening effort among the Navajo and Hopi peoples to strengthen families and improve nutrition. It was during that project effort that thoughts about this book came.
Those experiences among the Navajo and Hopi peoples as well other indigenous peoples were written in Bringing Dignity and Hope: The Work of the Ezra Taft Benson Agriculture and Food Institute. His discipline publications are concerned with nutrition, agricultural development in less-developed nations including working with small-holder farmers in Latin America and Africa. His expertise in agricultural development was recognized by a U.S. presidential appointment to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development. An avocational historian, he authored Before Zion: An Account of the 7th Handcart Company. He holds BS, MS and PhD degrees and was awarded an honorary degree from a Guatemalan university. He and his wife, Kathleen, are the parents of five children and were also foster parents for four Navajo foster daughters and one Hispanic foster son. An active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he has served as a bishop, stake president, mission president, patriarch and Area Executive Secretary in the Pacific Islands.
This is the book that explains the “two-sets-of-plates” scenario that everyone is talking about. It is an awesome book for LDS audiences who are familiar with Church history and want to learn more. The book explains that Joseph translated two sets of plates, that Mormon’s repository was in New York, and that the plates are still not far from Cumorah.
The traditional version of Church history is that Moroni buried the golden plates in the Hill Cumorah in a stone-and-cement box he built in the hillside. 1400 years later, Moroni directed Joseph Smith to the stone box. In 1827, Joseph obtained the plates and translated them into what is now known as the Hill Cumorah.
The traditional story is correct regarding the “original” Book of Mormon, as Joseph described it. But the “original” Book of Mormon did not include the small plates of Nephi. Today, this is known as 1 Nephi through Words of Mormon.
The DVD of the same topic has just been released. Watch Jonathan Neville at various conferences as he explains more details of his new research in Church History. More detail than the book and additional pictures in his newest presentations.
Purchase both the book and DVD at the bookstore or VISIT HERE
WHY PLATES WERE RETURNED TO MORONI. The question has been asked many times of our elders: Where are the plates? Does the Church have in its possession the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith?
When the answer is given that the plates were received again by the Angel Moroni, who through the centuries since they were hid up unto the Lord has been their special guardian, the reply is generally made: What a wonderful aid it would be to your people in convincing the world of the truth of your story if you could show the plates to prove that Joseph Smith really had them.
Perhaps it is natural for a man who hears for the first time the story of Joseph Smith and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon to propound such a question and to think that the plates, if they had been placed in some museum where the public could examine them, would have added much to prove the authenticity of the Prophet’s story. With deeper reflection we discover that this would not have been the case, for it is not the way the Lord proves his truth, now or at any other time. However, in surprise, and in some cases with an incredulous smile, the propounder of this question turns away feeling that such an answer as he has received is an admission that Joseph Smith never had the plates and practiced a fraud upon the public.
EXISTENCE OF PLATES WOULD NOT PROVE DIVINITY OF BOOK. It is well in considering this matter to remember the words of the Lord to Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” 228. 1
If the Lord had followed the thoughts of men and had commanded Joseph Smith to place the plates in some repository where they could have been inspected by the curious public, it would have led to endless disputations. Enemies of the Church would not have been convinced and would have contended most bitterly that the plates were spurious. No one could have read them for the characters engraved on them are unknown to the savants of the present age.
The Lord does not convince men of his truth by placing before their eyes and in their hands tangible evidence, as a lawyer may do before the court, marking it exhibit A and exhibit B, and then expect it to be accepted. The Lord expects the searcher after truth to approach him with a contrite spirit and with sincerity of purpose; if he will do this and keep the commandments of the Lord, he shall receive the witness through the Holy Spirit and shall know the truth. This testimony will come with such force and clearness that it cannot be denied. For this reason, the Lord said, “Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” 228. 2
WITNESSES OF BOOK OF MORMON TO BE RAISED UP. Nephi, one of the earliest prophets of the Israelitish colony, predicted nearly 600 years before the Christian era, that when the records containing the history of his people should be revealed from the dust, it would be in a day when the people would “deny the power of God, the Holy One of Israel,” and they would say: “Hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept; for behold there is no God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men.” 229. 3 Again, many among them would say when presented with a new volume of scripture containing the history of the people of this western world: “A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.” 229. 4
Because of this attitude towards this new record the Lord promised to raise up “as many witnesses as seemeth him good,” to “establish his word; and wo be unto him that rejecteth the word of God.” In that day when these things should be accomplished the Lord would proceed to do a marvelous work and a wonder which would prove to be a testimony against those who “seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord. “229. 5
Moreover, this new volume of scripture was to be a witness, not only for Christ and to contain the everlasting gospel but was also to be a witness for the Jewish scriptures, the Bible; and these two records — according to the prophesying of Nephi, his father, and also Joseph, son of Israel — were to grow together bearing testimony of the everlasting gospel. 229.6 As such a witness these records stand today testifying of the truth to the condemnation of all who reject their teachings. 229. 7
THE THREE WITNESSES. The three men called to serve as special witnesses of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon by the power of God are Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris… They were associated with Joseph Smith in the establishing of this marvelous work in this dispensation. Later all three witnesses became estranged and left the Church. 229. 8 Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris came back humbly seeking membership in the Church and both died in full fellowship. David Whitmer remained out of the Church; however, all three of these men remained faithful to the testimony they gave to the world which is found in each copy of the Book of Mormon.
Their testimony is that they received a visitation of an angel from the presence of the Lord, who laid before them the golden record from whence the Book of Mormon was translated, and who also instructed them. They beheld the engravings upon the plates as the leaves were turned one by one before them, and the voice of God was heard by them declaring from the heavens that the translation was by the gift and power of God and commanding them to bear record of it to all the world.230. 9 These three witnesses, through adversity, persecution, and all the vicissitudes of life, always remained true to their testimony that they beheld the plates in the presence of an angel and heard the voice of God speaking to them from the heavens.
TOTAL OF TWELVE WITNESSES. There were eight other witnesses who also beheld the plates, handled them, and examined carefully the engravings upon them as they were shown them by Joseph Smith. Their testimony is also given to the world and appears in each issue of the Book of Mormon. All of these eight men remained true to this testimony until death.
These twelve witnesses, four of whom beheld angels and had heavenly visions, and eight who beheld the record as it was shown to them by Joseph Smith, are all, it appears, that the Lord deemed necessary to establish the truth of the Book of Mormon, as he promised through Nephi that he would do. “And wo be unto him that rejecteth the word of God!” 230. 10 The testimonies of these men more than satisfy the law.230. 1 1
ALL MEN MAY BECOME BOOK OF MORMON WITNESSES. These are not all the witnesses who can speak of the divine mission of Joseph Smith, or of the truth of the Book of Mormon. The promise is made in the Book of Mormon that all who desire to know whether it is true and contains the word of the Lord may know that it is true if they will ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, for he will reveal it to them by the power of the Holy Ghost. 231. 12 There are hundreds of thousands who have put this promise to the test and can in all sincerity say that they have received that knowledge.231. 13
I am just as firmly convinced that this Book of Mormon is the word of God and was revealed, as Joseph Smith declared it was revealed, as I am that I stand here looking into your faces. Every soul on the face of the earth who has intelligence enough to understand may know that truth. How can he know it? All he has to do is to follow the formula that was given by the Lord himself when he declared to the Jews that they who would do the will of his Father should know of the doctrine, whether it was of God or whether he spoke of himself. 231. 14 My witness to all the world is that this book is true. I have read it many, many times. I have not read it enough. It still contains truths that I still may seek and find, for I have not mastered it, but I know it is true.
I know that the testimony of these witnesses recorded in each copy of the Book of Mormon is true, that they stood in the presence of an angel of God who declared unto them that the record as it was translated was correct, that their testimony that God spoke to them from the heavens calling upon them to bear witness of that fact is true, and there is not a soul who cannot receive that testimony if he desires to receive it. By reading this book prayerfully and faithfully, with a desire to know the truth as Moroni has declared by revelation, he shall know the truth regarding the restoration of this scripture given to the ancient inhabitants of this continent. 232. 15
WHERE IS THE HILL CUMORAH?
SPECULATION ABOUT BOOK OF MORMON GEOGRAPHY. Within recent years there has arisen among certain students of the Book of Mormon a theory to the effect that within the period covered by the Book of Mormon, the Nephites and Lamanites were confined almost entirely within the borders of the territory comprising Central America and the southern portion of Mexico — the isthmus of Tehauntepec probably being the “narrow neck” of land spoken of in the Book of Mormon rather than the isthmus of Panama.232. 16
This theory is founded upon the assumption that it was impossible for the colony of Lehi’s to multiply and fill the hemisphere within the limits of 1 ,000 years, or from the coming of Lehi from Jerusalem to the time of the destruction of the Nephites at the Hill Cumorah. Moreover, they claim that the story in the Book of Mormon of the migrations, building of cities, and the wars and contentions, preclude the possibility of the people spreading over great distances such as we find within the borders Of North and South America.
EARTH POPULATED RAPIDLY. If we are willing to accept the Bible record, which is confirmed by the Doctrine and Covenants, the entire civilization of the earth was destroyed in the flood except Noah and his family.232. 17 Moreover, this destruction took place less than 5,000 years ago, and today the population of the earth, notwithstanding wars and destructions, is estimated at over 2,000,000,000 souls.
The population of Europe, based upon the best records available, is vastly increased over that at the time of the discovery of America; yet upon this hemisphere are to be found hundreds of millions of people, descendants of European and Asiatic ancestors who knew nothing of this land before the discovery by Columbus. The rapid increase of posterity is known to every genealogist who has traced the record of the early settlers in this western country.
LOCALE OF CUMORAH, RAMAH, AND RIPLIANCUM. This modernistic theory of necessity, in order to be consistent, must place the waters of Ripliancum and the Hill Cumorah some place within the restricted territory of Central America, notwithstanding the teachings of the Church to the contrary for upwards of 100 years. Because of this theory some members of the Church have become confused and greatly disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon. It is for this reason that evidence is here presented to show that it is not only possible that these places could be located as the Church has held during the past century, but that in very deed such is the case.
It is known that the Hill Cumorah where the Nephites were destroyed is the hill where the Jaredites were also destroyed. This hill was known to the Jaredites as Ramah. It was approximately near to the waters of Ripliancum, which the Book of Ether says, “by interpretation, is large, or to exceed all.”233. 18 Mormon adds: “And it came to pass that we did march forth to the land of Cumorah, and we did pitch our tents round about the hill Cumorah; and it was in a land of many waters, rivers, and fountains; and here we had hope to gain advantage over the Lamanites.” 233. 19
EARLY BRETHREN LOCATE CUMORAH IN WESTERN NEW YORK. It must be conceded that this description fits perfectly the land of Cumorah in New York, as it has been known since the visitation of Moroni to the Prophet Joseph Smith, for the hill is in the proximity of the Great Lakes and also in the land of many rivers and fountains. Moreover, the Prophet Joseph Smith himself is on record, definitely declaring the present hill called Cumorah to be the exact hill spoken of in the Book of Mormon. 234. 20
Further, the fact that all of his associates from the beginning down have spoken of it as the identical hill where Mormon and Moroni hid the records, must carry some weight. It is difficult for a reasonable person to believe that such men as Oliver Cowdery, Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, David Whitmer, and many others, could speak frequently of the Spot where the Prophet Joseph Smith obtained the plates as the Hill Cumorah, and not be corrected by the Prophet, if that were not the fact. That they did speak of this hill in the days of the Prophet in this definite manner is an established record of history.
OLIVER COWDERY PLACES CUMORAH IN WESTERN NEW YORK. The first reference of this kind is found in the Messenger and Advocate, a paper published by the Church in 1834-5. In a brief history of the rise of the Church prepared by Oliver Cowdery, he makes reference to this particular spot in the following words:
“By turning to the 529th and 530th pages of the Book of Mormon you will read Mormon’s account of the last great struggle as they were encamped round this hill Cumorah. 234. 21 In this valley fell the remaining strength and pride of a once powerful people, the Nephites — once so highly favored of the Lord, but at that time in darkness, doomed to suffer extermination by the hand of their barbarous and uncivilized brethren. From the top of this hill, Mormon, with a few others, after the battle, gazed with horror upon the mangled remains of those who, the day before, were filled with anxiety, hope, or doubt. A few had fled to the south, who were hunted down by the victorious party, and all who would not deny the Savior and his religion, were put to death. Mormon himself, according to the record of his son Moroni, was also slain.
“But a long time previous to this national disaster it appears, from his own account, he foresaw approaching destruction. In fact, if he perused the records of his fathers, which were in his possession, he could have learned that such would be the case. Alma, who lived before the coming of the Messiah, prophesied this. He, however, by divine appointment, abridged from those records, in his own style and language, a short account of the more important and prominent items, from the days of Lehi to his own time, after which he deposited, as he says, on the 529th page, 235. 22 all the records in this same hill, Cumorah, and after gave his small record to his son Moroni, who, as appears from the same, finished, after witnessing the extinction of his people as a nation. . . .
HILL RAMAH IN WESTERN NEW YORK. “This hill, by the Jaredites, was called Ramah; by it, or around it, pitched the famous army of Coriantumr their tents. Coriantumr was the last king of the Jaredites. The opposing army were to the west, and in this same valley, and nearby, from day to day, did that mighty race spill their blood, in wrath, contending, as it were brother against brother, and father against son. In this same spot, in full view from the top of this same hill, one may gaze with astonishment upon the ground which was twice covered with the dead and dying of our fellowmen. . . .
“In this vale lie commingled, in one mass of ruin, the ashes of thousands, and in this vale was destined to consume the fair forms and vigorous systems of tens of thousands of the human race — blood mixed with blood, flesh with flesh, bones with bones, and dust with dust.” 236. 23
PROPHET APPROVES OLIVER COWDERY’S VIEWS. The quibbler might say that this statement from Oliver Cowdery is merely the opinion of Oliver Cowdery and not the expression of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It should be remembered that these letters in which these statements are made were written at the Prophet’s request and under his personal supervision. Surely, under these circumstances, he would not have permitted an error of this kind to creep into the record without correction.
At the commencement of these historical letters is found the following: “That our narrative may be correct, and particularly the introduction, it is proper to inform our patrons, that our Brother J. Smith Jr., has offered to assist us. Indeed, there are many items connected with the fore part of this subject that render his labor indispensable. With his labor and with authentic documents now in our possession, we hope to render this a pleasing and agreeable narrative, well worth the examination and perusal of the saints. “236. 24
Later, during the Nauvoo period of the Church, and again under the direction of the Prophet Joseph Smith, these same letters by Oliver Cowdery, were published in the Times and Seasons, without any thought of correction had this description of the Hill Cumorah been an error. 236. 25
TESTIMONY OF DAVID WHITMER TO HILL CUMORAH. Another testimony of interest is that of David Whitmer given to Elders Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith in September 1878, when they paid him a visit at his home in Richmond. To these brethren he said: “When I was returning to Fayette, with Joseph and Oliver, all of us riding in the wagon. Oliver and I on an old- fashioned wooden spring seat and Joseph behind us — while traveling along in a clear open space, a very pleasant, nice-looking old man suddenly appeared by the side of our wagon and saluted us with, ‘Good morning, it is very warm,’ at the same time wiping his face or forehead with his hand. We returned the salutation, and, by a sign from Joseph, I invited him to ride if he was going our way; but he said very pleasantly, ‘No, I am going to Cumorah.’ This name was something new to me; I did not know what Cumorah meant. We all gazed at him and at each other, and as 1 looked around inquiringly of Joseph, the old man instantly disappeared, so that I did not see him again.”
Joseph F. Smith asked: “Did you notice his appearance?”
David Whitmer: “I should think I did. He was, I should think, about five feet eight or nine inches tall and heavy set. . . . His hair and beard were white, like Brother Pratt’s, but his beard was not so heavy. I also remember that he had on his back a sort of knapsack with something in, shaped like a book. “237. 26
“GLAD TIDINGS FROM CUMORAH.” Who can read the words of Joseph Smith as recorded in section 128 of the Doctrine and Covenants and not feel that he had reference to the Hill Cumorah in western New York?
“And again, what do we hear? Glad tidings from Cumorah! Moroni, an angel from heaven, declaring the fulfilment of the prophets — the book to be revealed. A voice of the Lord in the wilderness of Fayette, Seneca county, declaring the three witnesses to bear record of the book!” 237. 27
While in this statement it is not positively declared that the Hill Cumorah is the place where the plates were obtained, yet the implication that such is the case is overwhelming. Moroni declaring from Cumorah the book to be revealed!
JOSEPH SMITH LOCATES CUMORAH IN WESTERN NEW YORK. Perhaps this matter could rest at this point, but the question of the territory now embraced within the United States having been in possession of Nephites and Lamanites before the death of Mormon, carries some weight in the determining of this matter. In the tight of revelation, it is absurd for anyone to maintain that the Nephites and Lamanites did not possess this northern land. While Zion’s camp was marching on the way to Jackson County, near the bank of the Illinois River they came to a mound containing the skeleton of a man. The history of this incident is as follows:
“The brethren procured a shovel and a hoe and removing the earth to the depth of about one foot, discovered the skeleton of a man, almost entire, and between his ribs the stone point of a Lamanitish arrow, which evidently produced his death. Elder Burr Riggs retained the arrow. The contemplation of the scenery around us produced peculiar sensations in our bosoms; and subsequently the visions of the past being opened to my understanding by the Spirit of the Almighty, I discovered that the person whose skeleton was before us was a white Lamanite, a large, thickset man, and a man of God. His name was Zelph. He was a warrior and chieftain under the great prophet Onandagus, who was known from the Hill Cumorah, or eastern sea to the Rocky Mountains. The curse was taken from Zelph, or at least, in part — one of his thigh bones was broken by a stone flung from a sling, while in battle, years before his death. He was killed in battle by the arrow found among his ribs, during the last great struggle of the Lamanites and Nephites.” 238. 28
HEBER C. KIMBALL TELLS OL DEATH OE ZELPH. Elder Heber C. Kimball who was present recorded the following in his journal: “While on our way we felt anxious to know who the person was who had been killed by that arrow. It was made known to Joseph that he had been an officer who fell in battle, in the last destruction among the Lamanites, and his name was Zelph. This caused us to rejoice much, to think that God was so mindful of us as to show these things to his servant. Brother Joseph had inquired of the Lord, and it was made known in a vision.” 239. 29
ANCIENT CITY OF MANTI IN MISSOURI. The following is also taken from the history of the travels of the Kirtland Camp: “The camp passed through Huntsville, in Randolph County, which has been appointed as one of the stakes of Zion and is the ancient site of the City of Manti, and pitched tents at Dark Creek, Salt Licks, seventeen miles. It was reported to the camp that one hundred and ten men had volunteered from Randolph and gone to Far West to settle difficulties.” 239. 30
The following account of the same event is taken from the daily journal of the Kirtland Camp, and was written by Samuel D. Tyler: “September 25, 1838. We passed through Huntsville, Co. seat of Randolph Co, Pop. 450, and three miles further we bought 32 bu. of corn off one of the brethren who resides in this place. There are several of the brethren round about here and this is the ancient site of the City of Manti, which is spoken of in the Book of Mormon and this is appointed one of the Stakes of Zion, and it is in Randolph County, Missouri, three miles west of the county seat.” 239. 3 1
NEPHITE AND JAREDITE WARS IN WESTERN NEW YORK. In the face of this evidence coming from the Prophet Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer, we cannot say that the Nephites and Lamanites did not possess the territory of the United States and that the Hill Cumorah is in Central America. Neither can we say that the great struggle which resulted in the destruction of the Nephites took place in Central America. If Zelph, a righteous man, was fighting under a great prophet-general in the last battles between the Nephites and Lamanites; if that great prophet-general was known from the Rocky Mountains to “the Hill Cumorah or eastern sea,” then some of those battles, and evidently the final battles did take place within the borders of what is now the United States.
There were no righteous prophets, save the Three Nephites, after the death of Moroni, and we learn that Zelph was slain during one of these battles during the great last struggle between the Nephites and Lamanites and was buried near the Illinois River.
In the Book of Mormon story the Lamanites were constantly crowding the Nephites back towards the north and east. If the battles in which Zelph took part were fought in the country traversed by the Zion’s Camp, then we have every reason to believe from what is written in the Book of Mormon, that the Nephites were forced farther and farther to the north and east until they found themselves in the land of Ripliancum, which both Ether and Mormon declare to us was the land of Ramah or Cumorah, a land of “many waters,” which “by interpretation, is large, or to exceed all. “240. 32
This being true, what would be more natural then that Moroni, like his father Mormon, would deposit the plates in the land where the battles came to an end and the Nephites were destroyed? This Moroni says he did, and from all the evidence in the Book of Mormon, augmented by the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, these final battles took place in the territory known as the United States and in the neighborhood of the Great
Lakes and hills of Western New York. And here Moroni found the resting place for the sacred instruments which had been committed to his care. 241. 33
IMPRESSIONS AT CUMORAH
LORD LED PROPHET’S LAMILY TO CUMORAH-LAND. As I stood upon these sacred places I had peculiar feelings which I cannot describe. I always do have such feelings; I have visited the Hill Cumorah and the Sacred Grove on other occasions. As I stood at the Smith home, I thought of the early struggles of the family, and wondered what means the Lord might have used to get them to move from Vermont or New Hampshire, if they had not been forced from these states by poverty. Their poverty was not the result of indolence, as the wicked have proclaimed, but the poverty and reverses of Providence, sent to give experience and to lead the family to a better land where the Lord could perform his work through the youthful Seer, yet to be raised up.
When the Smith family arrived in Palmyra they immediately bargained for the purchase of 100 acres of land. This is known today as the Joseph Smith farm and is in the possession of the Church. In that day the land was covered with a heavy growth of timber. This had to be removed before the land could be planted and crops raised to pay for the farm. As I stood upon this ground, I thought of the struggles this entailed. My grandfather, Hyrum Smith, and his older brother, Alvin, were called upon to do much of this laborious task. The younger brother, Joseph, was too young at that time to give much help, being only about 10 years of age. Nevertheless, he was called to assist, and a few years later — at the time of the vision — was under the necessity of performing labor required of a man.
The house which stands upon the farm was built by these sons of Joseph Smith, Senior; but it is not the house, as many have been told, in which the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith. The older house has long since disappeared and stood several rods to the north of the present home. After the proclamation of the Angel’s visit persecution raged, and the family were not permitted long to enjoy the land which had cost them so much to prepare, because of others, who, through wickedness, for a season reaped the fruits thereof.
CUMORAH ONCE SITE OF CARNAGE AND DESTRUCTION. As I stood upon the summit of the Hill Cumorah, in the midst of a vast multitude, only a few of whom belonged to the Church, I tried to picture the scenes of former days. Here were assembled vast armies filled with bitterness and bent on destruction. I thought of the great promises the Lord had made through his prophets concerning those who should possess this choice land, and how those promises were not fulfilled because the people violated his commandments. Here a people perished because of their extreme wickedness.
There must be something in the destiny of things that would cause a repetition of this terrible scene on the same spot many centuries later. I reflected and wondered if this unhappy time would ever come when another still mightier people would incur the wrath of God because of wickedness and likewise perish. If so, would this same spot witness their destruction? I thought of the prophets, Ether, Mormon, Moroni, and tried to realize the sadness of their feelings as they witnessed the mad onrushing of their peoples to annihilation.
IMPORTANCE OF CUMORAH UNKNOWN TO WORLD. We sang the song, prepared for this celebration, 242 . 34 Zion-land, and I entered heartily, sincerely, into the spirit of the song:
God bless our Zion-land,
Firm may she ever stand,
Through storm and night;
When the wild tempests rave,
Ruler of wind and wave,
Do Thou Thy Zion save
By thy great might!
For her our prayers shall rise
To God above the skies,
With Him we stand;
Thou who art ever nigh,
Guarding with watchful eye,
To Thee aloud we cry,
God save Thy land.
Here it was that Moroni, commanded by the Lord, hid up the sacred records of his people. Here it was. 1,400 years later, that he, then a resurrected being, came to Joseph Smith and committed these same records to the young man’s care. At the time of the Prophet’s first visit to the hill, it was covered with trees; today (1923) it is stripped and bare, save for the grass which grows abundantly. This former scene of strife and bloodshed, where two nations perished, later the sacred repository of ancient records, today is the abode of peaceful cattle, reclining and chewing the cud. The many millions of inhabitants of the land, who, because they love darkness rather than light, will not believe, and although an angel has declared it unto them, they appear to have no more thought concerning the wonderful events that have taken place near and on the Hill Cumorah, than have these cattle.243. 35
FOOTNOTES 228-1 Isa. 55:8-9.
228- 2 Era, vol. 30. pp. 948-949; Matt. 12:32.
229- 3 2 Ne. 28:5.
229-4 2 Ne. 29:3.229-5 2 Ne. 27:14,26-27.
229-6 2 Ne. 3; 4; 25; 26; 27; 28; 29.
229-7 Era, vol. 26, pp. 958-959.
229- 8 It is well known that Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer left the Church, but it has been generally supposed that Martin Harris was never excommunicated, he Journal History of the Church under date of Jan. 1, 1838. however, tells of his excommunication by the High Council in Kirtland in Dec. 1837. He was rebaptized Sept. 17, 1870. in Salt Lake City by Edward Stevenson and confirmed the same day by Orson Pratt. Journal History. Sept. 17,1870.
230- 9 History of the Church, vol. 1, pp. 52- 59.
230-10 2 Ne. 27:14.
230- 11 Deut. 17:6; 19:15; Matt. 18:15-16; 2 Cor. 13:1.
231- 12 Moro. 10:3-5.
231-13 Era, vol. 30. pp. 952-953.
231- 14 John 7:14-17.
232- 15 Conf. Rep., Oct., 1949. p. 89; Moro. 10:3-5.
232-16 Alma 50:34; 52:9; 63:5; Morm. 2:29; 3:5.
232- 17 Gen. 6; 7; 8; Moses 7:36-43, 51-52; 8:22-30; Alma 10:22; 3 Ne. 22:9; Ether 6:7.
233- 18 Ether 15:8-11.
233- 19 Morm. 6:4.
234- 20 History of the Church, 1948 ed., vol. 2, pp. 79-80.
234- 21 Morm. 5; 6.
235- 22 Morm. 6:6.
236- 23 Messenger and Advocate, July, 1835. pp. 158-159.
235- 24 Messenger and Advocate, Oct., 1834. p. 13.
236- 25 Times and Seasons, Apr. 15, 1841, vol. 2, p. 379.
237- 26 Millennial Star, vol. 40, p. 772.
237- 27 D. & C. 128:20.
238- 28 History of the Church, 1948 ed., vol. 2, pp. 79-80. Through error the part of this quotation naming the Hill Cumorah” and specifying that Zelph died in the last great struggle was omitted in editions prior to 1948. It was, however quoted correctly, as written by the Prophet and here given, in vol. 6 of the Times and Seasons of Jan. 1, 1846.
239- 29 Times and Seasons, vol. 6. p. 788.
239-30 Millennial Star. vol. 16. p. 296.
239- 31 Journal of Samuel D. Tyler, Sept. 25, 1838, filed in Church Historian’s Office.
240- 32 Ether 15:8-11.
241- 33 Church News, Sept. 10, 1938, pp. 1, 6; reprinted. Feb. 27, 1954, pp. 2-3.
242- 34 President Joseph Fielding Smith was attending the first general conference of the Eastern States Mission, convened at the Joseph Smith Farm near Palmyra, New York, on Sept. 21 to 23, 1923 — the one hundredth anniversary of the appearance of Moroni to Joseph Smith.
243- 35 Rel. Soc. Mag., vol. 10. pp. 586-587.
Millions have asked the question, ‘Is there Evidence of the Historicity of The Book of Mormon’, because the Book of Mormon is foundational to the Mormon faith – more accurately known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many have wondered what evidence has been found in its support, as the book asserts to be a record of ancient peoples that came by ship from the Old World region of Israel to the America’s where they developed into large and highly advanced civilizations with written language, walled cities, extensive roads, metal working, agriculture and a multitude of other sophisticated capabilities.
Claims have been made that there is no evidence to support its historical authenticity – or historicity. This website is devoted to providing numerous ARTICLES, VIDEOS and other educational opportunities that demonstrate through archaeology, genetics, linguistics and many other fields that not only is there profound physical evidence for the validity of this ancient historical record, but that this evidence leads to further understandings of where this history actually took place, the role of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the importance of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Articles Index HERE – Video Gallery HERE.
You’ll have, for the first time ever, an eagle’s eye view of the Mississippian ceremonial complexes of Georgia, the enigmatic Serpent Mound in Ohio, visually stunning photographs and video of sacred temples and Church History sites as you discover the hidden beauty of this sacred Promised Land of America – the stunningly beautiful lands of the Book of Mormon!
Join Book of Mormon scholar and best-selling author Rod Meldrum as he lays out a deeper understanding of not only where the Book of Mormon took place, but how the Mesoamerican peoples fit into what happened on in North America between the end of the Nephite civilization and the arrival of the European colonists. The story is absolutely fascinating!
We encourage you to explore our website which is devoted to supporting the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
The original research, presented in the DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography DVD presentation has gone as far as Europe, New Zealand, Austrailia, Alaska, Samoa, South Africa, Japan, South America and throughout the United States and Canada. The response has been nothing short of amazing and it is truly humbling to read the tens of thousands of positive responses. A newly updated 5 disk DVD series has been released with 9+ hours of presentations, interviews and on location video called Book of Mormon Evidence. This is the most comprehensive research ever assembled on what is being heralded as a ‘movement within the Church’ becoming widely known as the ‘Heartland Model’ geography of the Book of Mormon. We invite you to explore this website, enjoy the FREE articles available for downloading, the Questions and Answers, the testimonials and the photographs. For further information and educational materials visit our Bookstore. This project is the result of 5 years of research into the subject of physical evidences that are showing forth the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
As Austin Farrar stated on the relationship between rational arguement (evidence) and belief:
“Though argument does not create conviction, lack of it destroys belief.
What seems to be proved may not be embraced;
but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned.
Rational argument does not create belief, but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish.”
It is hoped that you will find the information informative, enlightening, and that it creates in all who see it a strong desire to study and ponder the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, to learn more about The Prophet, Joseph Smith Jr., and the gospel he restored to the earth and
ultimately to develop a stronger personal testimony of Jesus Christ.
SAINTS, volume 1 leaves out the word “Cumorah” and instead uses the narrative calling Cumorah, a hill, or the hill. In the index under the title, “hill” it lists the following pages where “hill” in used, not Cumorah. See index under, hill (Cumorah) page 22, 24, 25, 29, 34
(Left) Huts located at Fort Ancient, Lebanon, OH, were made of rectangular or circular sapling frames covered in mats, bark and animal hides. These huts may have been similar to the type of homes built by the Nephites. (Photos by Rod Meldrum and found on Page 349 of Annotated Book of Mormon)
(Above) “American Indian Life in the Late Prehistoric Period” By Susan A. Walton Courtesy of Hopewell Cultural Center, Chillicothe, Ohio
(Above) Chief of the Taensa Indians Receiving La Salle. March 20, 1682 By George Catlin (July 26, 1796 December 23, 1872) Wooden Homes of the Taensa Indians.
The only known Nephite cement was the cement that Moroni used when he built the stone box for the plates, as described by Joseph and Oliver.
Maritime adventurer Philip Beale has led a life of exploration, searching for answers to some of the great mysteries of ancient civilizations. His adventures began when he was chosen for Operation Drake, sailing the brigantine Eye of the Wind from Fiji to Papua New Guinea. Later, Philip joined the Royal Navy as an officer, and after leaving the Navy, he then led a successful career in finances. Years later, in Indonesia, Philip commissioned construction of a replica vessel depicted at the Borobudur stupa. He then navigated the Borobudur Ship Expedition across the Indian Ocean sailing far as Ghana in the West coast of Africa. The Borobudur Ship is now on display in its own dedicated at Museum at the Borobudur Temple in Indonesia. His next big project was the Phoenician Ship Expeditions.
Huts located at Fort Ancient, Lebanon, OH, were made of rectangular or circular sapling frames covered in mats, bark and animal hides. These huts may have been similar to the type of homes built by the Nephites. (Photos by Rod Meldrum and Found on Page 349 of Annotated Book of Mormon)
Messenger and Advocate (Kirtland 1835)
Joseph Smith’s History, 1834-1836, contains Oliver’s letters, including Letter VII. You can find it in the Joseph Smith Papers starting with Chapter 1 on page 17. Oliver’s letters appear several pages later. 
In a recent presentation, I summarized it this way, leading to my own conclusions. As I mentioned at the outset, a longer version of this is available here:” Jonathan Neville 
JSH 1:34 “He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants; 35 Also, that there were 
believe in this painting by Ann Marie Oborn that I commissioned, may be how Joseph kept that directive: During translation I propose Joseph used a farmer’s hat that he probably wore daily to work on the farm. (picture right). A young boy would most likely only use a stove pipe hat for a dance or for proper attire, but his working hat would be with him almost constantly you would think. This hat I believe was not used with a stone in it, but as a tool or prop to hide the two stones in a bow or the spectacles from the view of the scribe, as you see in the picture below. The hat is nothing more than a prop to block out Emma’s vision. Joseph could also keep his promise to not show 
Yes, the Prophet of the Lord kept his promise not to show anyone these articles the best way he knew how with his 
According to his mother, Joseph Smith kept the “Key” ‘constantly about his person’. According to Lucy Mack Smith, The “Key“ is the two stones, (that came from the Brother of Jared (Ether 3:22-24) in silver bows, fastened to the breastplate that were found by Joseph in the stone box with the plates at Hill Cumorah. I believe the witness of Lucy Mack Smith and the scripture in JSH 1:35, more than I believe Martin Harris, David Whitmer, or Emma Smith in their statements about a stone in a hat. They never saw the items used for translation as Oliver & Joseph did. Most people knew Joseph had a stone or two, but there is no record of anyone firsthand who saw Joseph use his stone to translate. There is no scripture that mentions a stone in a hat for translation. I believe the scriptures. 
“Not only did Joseph Smith use the Urim and Thummim to translate the Book of Mormon, but he also used it to receive revelation from God. Specifically, Doctrine and Covenants sections 3, 6, 11, and 14, 15,16, were all given through the Urim and Thummim. (See headings to these sections) We learn from the Doctrine and Covenants that “the place where God resides is a great Urim and Thummim.” In addition, “this earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon.” And each person who receives the white stone mentioned in Revelation 2:17 will be able to use the Urim and Thummim (D&C 130:8–10).” by Jay A. Parry and Larry E. Morris, adapted from “The Mormon Book of Lists” | Jan. 18, 2019 LDS Living
Why did Friberg choose a Central American setting? Why do so many people–perhaps most members of the Church today–think Book of Mormon events took place in Mesoamerica?
As recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord sent missionaries to the Indians living in New York, Ohio, and Missouri, specifically identifying them as Lamanites and telling them that He (the Lord) “would go with them and be in their midst.” (D&C 32:2) During this mission, Joseph Smith told tribes from Michigan that the Book of Mormon was the history of their ancestors. He wrote that the Book of Mormon is a record of “the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians.” 2
Writing the three “Mesoamerica” articles for the Times and Seasons was not a crime in the technical sense of the word. But the mystery about their authorship has endured for 173 years because the stakes involved are so high. What reader of the Book of Mormon has not wondered where the events took place? Millions of people–members, investigators, and critics, as well as the curious and studious–have read the Book of Mormon. Having an idea of the actual setting is important in order to understand the Book of Mormon people and their society–as well as to establish the historicity of the book. If Joseph Smith wrote the Mesoamerican articles, then those who sustain him as a Prophet generally feel compelled to accept the Mesoamerican setting. In fact, it was the presumption that Joseph wrote, or at least approved of, these articles that led Church members to formulate the limited geography of Mesoamerica as the setting for the Book of Mormon in the first place. LDS scholars have worked diligently to vindicate what they thought were Joseph’s teachings about Mesoamerica.
What no one noticed before now was a number of similarities between the Mesoamerican articles and the known writings of one Benjamin Winchester. Words, phrases, and concepts were common to both sets of documents–and unique to Winchester.
Early Mormon Lamanism, Forgotten Apocalyptic Visions, and the Indian Prophet
“You’re a Mormon?” Nicholas said to me. “Oh, boy, do I have a good story to tell you.”
Rod Meldrum
(Left) Replica shell of an all-searching eye in a five-fingered hand Hamsa amulet (note the hole at the bottom). Both the item on the left and below are displayed in the Cahokia Museum, on loan from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL.
Salt Lake Temple
“On the morning of September 22, after Joseph had returned from the hill, he placed the article [the Nephite interpreters] of which he spoke into my hands, and, upon examination, 
of in his history. It was wrapped in a thin muslin handkerchief, so thin that I could feel its proportions without any difficulty. It was concave on one side and convex on the other, and extended from the neck downwards, as far as the center of the stomach of a man of extraordinary size. It had four straps of the same material, for the purpose of fastening it to the breast.” (History of Joseph Smith by His Mother Lucy Mack Smith)
I have learned over the years the truthfulness of the doctrine that there is opposition in all things; 
The Hebrew Shin, the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet, is the first letter of two of the names of God. Shin also stands for the word Shaddai, a name for God Almighty. It is formed roughly in the shape of the English letter ‘W’ with the left and middle legs connecting before jointly connecting to the right leg as shown on the left. 
One religious significance of the letter Shin in that there are three valleys that encompass the holy city of Jerusalem in the sacred name of God: the Ben Hinnom Valley, the Tyropoeon Valley and the Kidron Valley, and that these valleys converge to form the shape of the letter Shin (shown on the right; insert is an aerial view). The Temple in Jerusalem is located where the dagesh (horizontal line) ends. This is seen as a fulfillment of scripture (Deuteronomy 16:2) that instructs Jews to celebrate the Passover at “the place which the LORD shall choose to place His name there.” (
Those experiences among the Navajo and Hopi peoples as well other indigenous peoples were written in Bringing Dignity and Hope: The Work of the Ezra Taft Benson Agriculture and Food Institute. His discipline publications are concerned with nutrition, agricultural development in less-developed nations including working with small-holder farmers in Latin America and Africa. His expertise in agricultural development was recognized by a U.S. presidential appointment to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development. An avocational historian, he authored Before Zion: An Account of the 7th Handcart Company. He holds BS, MS and PhD degrees and was awarded an honorary degree from a Guatemalan university. He and his wife, Kathleen, are the parents of five children and were also foster parents for four Navajo foster daughters and one Hispanic foster son. An active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he has served as a bishop, stake president, mission president, patriarch and Area Executive Secretary in the Pacific Islands.
